Sign Up
SB 1437 Connecticut Senate · 2025 Regular Session

AN ACT CONCERNING REQUESTS FOR HEALTH RECORDS AND THE FEES CHARGED FOR ACCESS TO SUCH RECORDS.

SB 1437 requires most health care institutions (excluding some mental health facilities and the Albert J. Solnit Children's Center) to provide electronic copies of a patient's medical records to other institutions within 6 business days for urgent requests or 7 business days otherwise, and to the patient's attorney within 20 business days. The bill caps fees for these records at the greater of the federal standard (45 CFR 164.524(c)(4)) or $250 plus postage and imaging costs. Institutions do not need specific patient consent to share records under these rules but are exempt from sharing records that would violate federal privacy law or in response to third-party requests. This bill applies to health care institutions defined under section 19a-490 and takes effect October 1, 2025.
Issues: ✓ HealthcareSupports HealthcareBill mandates timely access to medical records for patients/institutions and caps fees, directly improving patient access and rights per healthcare policy indicators.95% confidence
Bill status in committee 1 of 4 stages cleared
Introduction
Feb 2025
Committee Review
Floor Vote
Governor
Introduced Feb 28, 2025 Last action Apr 23, 2025
Maddy AI version diff · 1 comparison

What changed between versions

Raised Bill → JUD Joint Favorable Substitute · 5 edits
MODERATE
SB 1437 was amended to streamline medical record delivery timelines and clarify enforcement procedures for healthcare institutions. The bill now requires institutions to provide electronic copies of medical records to other institutions within 6 days for urgent requests or 7 business days for non-urgent requests, and to patient attorneys within 20 business days. The amendment also removed certain penalty procedures for physicians who fail to submit medical reports in a timely fashion and added a payment timing provision for record copies.
Scope change
The bill's scope expanded to include specific electronic record transfer timelines between healthcare institutions and clarified that payment for records is due after receipt by the requester.
REQUIREMENT

Medical record transfer timelines were standardized to 6 days for urgent requests between institutions and 7 business days for non-urgent requests.

Patient attorneys now receive electronic medical records within 20 business days of request.

Payment for medical record copies is now due after the recipient receives the records.

ENFORCEMENT

Penalty procedures requiring physicians to appear at hearings for late medical report submissions were removed.

TECHNICAL

Formatting and bracketed text were cleaned up to improve readability and remove editorial markup.

Floor votes

How they voted

No floor votes recorded yet.
Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions
9
Key actions
1
Committee
2
Apr 4, 2025
Upper · Passed
Joint Favorable Substitute
upper
Feb 28, 2025
Committee
REF. TO JOINT COMM. ON Judiciary
upper
0 primary · 0 co-sponsors

Sponsors

No sponsor information available.