Bert,
Here is what my billing/contract service told me in response to your question:
"Providers can bill for the copying of medical records…physicians usually do not charge other physicians as a courtesy (if you think about it what if they need records do they want to be charged). In short there is nothing that says physicians can not bill other physicians…if they want they can…I don’t think they should."
You can bill for copying, yet I think my practice people felt that since the request was being originated from another physician's office (and not from the patient) this would constitute billing the requestor (the physician) and not the patient. I'm not sure that is completely accurate, yet the bottom line seems to be you can bill based on the contracts.
In my practice, we give the first copy free and then charge for subsequent copies from patients. With regards to other physician requests, we do not charge, although we do call someone when they leave me and then see 2 subsequent primary cares before settling again. I do wish to charge for those, since I am no longer the PCP of record. My wife/HIPAA expert/office manager tells me charging is not wise, yet she won't continually copy records either. What a pain! Hope this helps.
