No. HB 1309
Filed under Healthcare.
Patient Access to Records; Requires certain licensed facilities, providers, & health care practitioners to furnish & provide access to records & reports within specified timeframes after receiving request for such records.
Plain English Summary
AI-GENERATEDHospitals, doctors, mental-health providers, substance-abuse programs, and nursing homes must now hand over a patient's records within a fixed number of working days after a written request, replacing vague standards like 'in a timely manner.'
Most providers get 14 working days to furnish copies and 10 working days to let the patient examine originals in person. Nursing home residents get faster treatment: access within 24 hours and copies within 2 working days.
A new law creates one general records-access right covering most providers, replacing a hospital rule that previously let facilities wait until a patient was discharged before releasing any records at all.
Substance-abuse treatment clients gain an explicit right to see and copy their own records for the first time in that law, which previously addressed only confidentiality, not access.
AIA new law requires any covered health care provider to furnish a complete copy of a client's records within 14 working days of a written request, and to let the client examine the originals within 10 working days.
AIA nursing home must let a current resident examine their records within 24 hours, excluding weekends and holidays, and hand over copies within 2 working days, down from the previous 14-working-day deadline for copies.
AIAny licensed health care practitioner must now furnish copies of a patient's reports and records within a firm 14-working-day deadline, replacing the old 'timely manner, without delays for legal review' standard with a specific number.
AIPatients gain a right, not previously in this statute, to examine their original reports and records in person at a health care practitioner's office within 10 working days of a written request.
AIFlorida law limited a hospital's duty to furnish patient records to requests made only after discharge. That precondition is deleted, and the duty to furnish records moves to a new general statute with a 14-working-day deadline and no discharge requirement.
AISubstance-abuse treatment clients gain a new right to a copy of their records within 14 working days and to examine the originals within 10 working days; the section previously covered only confidentiality, not access.
AIA community mental health or substance-abuse service provider must furnish a patient's clinical records within 14 working days of a qualifying request, in paper or, on request, in an electronic format.