House Sends Medical Records Retention and Access Bill to Governor

The House this week unanimously passed Senate Bill 74, a bill that will establish requirements for the handling of treatment records for Advanced Practice Registered Nurses (certified nurse practitioners), Licensees under the Board of Mental Health and Chemical Dependency Professionals, mental health professional counselors and associate counselors, chemical dependency professionals, marriage and family therapists, professional art therapists, Psychologists, and Licensed Clinical Social Workers.

Under current law, a patient or client does not have a right or clear procedure by which to obtain a copy of their record when one of these practitioners closes a practice, dies, terminates a patient relationship, or is incapacitated. This bill will require the above referenced practitioners to sent out a notice within 30 days about how to obtain their medical and treatment records if they so desire.

The bill now goes to Governor Carney for his signature.

SENATE BILL 74 – OBTAINING PERSONAL MEDICAL RECORDS WHEN A PRACTICE CLOSES	Currrent Status – Senate Passed 21-0. House Passed 39-0-2. Sent to the Governor.
House Sponsors – Minor-Brown, Williams, Baumbach, Chukwuocha, Heffernan, Johnson, Lambert, Longhurst	Senate Sponsors – Hansen, Hoffner, Pinkney, Sokola, Townsend, Walsh
House Yes Votes – Baumbach Bolden Bush Carson Chukwuocha Cooke Dorsey-Walker Griffith Harris Heffernan Johnson Lambert Longhurst Lynn Matthews Minor-Brown Moore Morrison Neal Osienski Parker-Selby Phillips Romer Schwartzkopf Williams Wilson-Anton // Briggs King Collins Gray Hensley Hilovsky Morris Postles Ramone Shupe Smith Spiegelman Vanderwende Yearick	Senate Yes Votes – Brown Gay Hansen Hoffner Huxtable Lockman Mantzavinos McBride Paradee Pinkney Poore Sokola Sturgeon Townsend Walsh // Buckson Hocker Lawson Pettyjohn Richardon Wilson
House No Votes – None	Senate No Votes –
House Absents or Not Voting – Short, Dukes	Senate Absent or Not Voting –