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July has been an adjustment period for us all because of the new law regarding medical record copying fees, and I appreciate all of the hard work that you do each and every day.  I know that it has not always been easy to remember everything because of all of the changes, especially if you have been working with MSM for a while.

The new law effective July 1, 2004 has had a significant financial impact on our company.   With the limits set forth by the new law, MSM employees have to help charge what the law allows for medical record copies.  We have been finding a large number of mistakes on invoices that are costing our company money.  Although we cannot overcharge a requester for records, we must be careful to charge the maximum amount allowed by the new law.

Because we have been finding so many invoicing errors, I want to remind you about some of the invoicing procedures that seem to be problem areas.

Remember that we do not charge a base fee unless the requester is representing someone other than the patient whose record you are copying.  For this requester, follow the old fee schedule before July 1^st.

Also remember that Shipping/Handling is 10% according to the new law.  The only time that Shipping/Handling is 15% is when the requester is representing someone other than the patient whose record you are copying.  There will be no $25.00 cap for Shipping/Handling whether you are charging 10% by the new law or 15% by the old fee schedule.

Also remember that we do not have a microfilm charge of $1.10 under the new law.  Microfilm is included with the other pages that you copy and is charged at the same rate as those pages (i.e. $20.00 for pages 1-20, $1.00 per page for pages 21-100, and $0.50 per page for pages 101+).  You can still charge $1.10 if you are following the old fee schedule for a requester representing someone other than the patient whose record you are copying.

When certification is requested, the certification fee for all requesters is $25.00 (i.e. representing the patient, not representing the patient, workers’ comp).

Workers comp has a $50.00 cap for photocopying fees only.  The cap does not include shipping/handling and certification fees.  These fees are in addition to the $50.00 cap.

We also are having a hard time knowing what is wrong with the return requests that you are sending to the requester.  Include a copy of the cover letter that explains what is wrong with the authorization so that we will be able to communicate with the requester.

I have some ideas to make invoicing easier, so that the number of mistakes will be minimal.  I have included some examples for you to review.

If the number of pages is 20 or less, complete the invoice as follows adding certification fees if applicable:

If the number of pages is 100 or less (but more than 20), you can use only 1 line on the invoice.

If the number of pages is more than 100, then you have to use 2 lines on the invoice.  The following is an invoice for 155 pages.