Top health care data company to provide medical records for free

Leading health data logistics company Datavant announced Tuesday it will no longer be charging patients for health records requests as part of what it calls its commitment to ensuring a “safe flow of patient information across the healthcare ecosystem.”

Datavant said in a statement that it processed more than 2 million patient requests in 2023. The company’s network includes 70 percent of the top 100 health systems in the United States. Officials from the company said it is the first release-of-information service to provide free access to records.

“As we move into a place where there’s the availability of more digital connectivity, we no longer have people who are swivel-chairing between, like, multiple screens in order to get medical records,” Datavant’s Chief Product Officer Shannon West told The Hill. “We believe this is an important opportunity for us to really set the tone for the rest of the industry to say patients should have access to their medical records for free.”

While there are some variations across states and different health systems, West noted the typical charge for medical records is $6.50, which is the flat fee that federal authorities permit entities to charge if they don’t wish to calculate the actual cost of processing a request for patient health information.

This decision by Datavant, which West said resulted after “internal debate for some time,” comes after the company settled allegations of overcharging for some patient records a few years ago.

Ciox Health, a subsidiary of Datavant, was the subject of a 2019 class action lawsuit alleging the company charged excessive fees for copies of patients’ records in Texas. Ciox, which merged with Datavant in 2021, agreed to pay $1.85 million in 2022 to settle the suit without admitting any wrongdoing.

Kimberly White, health information systems operations manager at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, called the decision by Datavant a “game changer.”

“Even if you do everything right, sometimes it just doesn’t work out. You know, filling out forms, making sure signatures match — all this other stuff,” White said. “So, by having this resource with Datavant now, anybody — as long as you are linked with Datavant — can access their records with just simple verification.”

She also noted that many patients may go to one provider for a diagnosis and to another for treatment, making easy access to their records critical for their providers to have a clear picture on their condition.

Dana-Farber made the decision to not charge for patient records before Datavant, with the hospital deciding to take on the cost of the service. According to West, the cost of providing this access for free will be “definitely in the millions.”

Based on the 2 million requests processed in 2023, West estimates that a similar number of people will make requests for their medical records in 2024, with potentially more choosing to do so now that there is no monetary cost.