SummaryHouse Bill 647 requires a party requesting certain patient medical records, as specified, is responsible for reasonable costs of copying and mailing or transmitting the records, and for a flat Notary fee of not more than $20.
AnalysisHouse Bill 647 sets various fees for producing, copying, and mailing or transmitting patient medical records that do not involve workers’ compensation cases on a paper or an electronic medium. The exclusion is important because evidently, in testimony before the House Health Committee, the bill author said consumers in the past were charged as much as $6,000 for copies of their medical records. While the bill deals with fees for various services, the most relevant fee to Notaries in House Bill 647 is the flat Notary fee of not more than $20. In Tennessee, there are no maximum fees for notarial acts; Notaries are authorized to set their own fees. But now, Notaries may not charge more than a flat $20 fee to notarize any documents provided. Evidently, last year the bill was on the verge of enactment when legislators recognized they had specified the $20 flat Notary fee for electronic health records but had not amended the existing statute for paper records to be subject to the same flat fee. So, the bill was re-referred back to the committee this year so the amendment could be made. The flat fee would apply to a paper-based and online notarial act and any copy certifications of paper printouts of electronically notarized records.
Read House Bill 647.