Greed pure and simple. Especially in this day and age of electronic records there is no other reason than greed.

I think it simply because it involves work and they have to do it in a safe, protected way

I needed more than just a summary and wasn’t a fan of having to pay $25 to have my records sent by registered post. But I understand why. Admin don’t just press “print” and send. They have to sort through your file, and pay postage. Doing this is an extra service and admin need to be paid for that time, away from other clinic duties. At least the receiving clinic doesn’t charge fees to scan and upload every document to your file.

I’ve never paid to have records transferred !

Just ask for a copy of your records. You’re entitled to them, and your doctor should not charge you for that. Then you can make a copy and give it to your new doctor.

A lot of Dr’s don’t charge but some do. It’s not the Dr’s who do the copying so it shouldn’t be too expensive. You can question the cost if it’s excessive with the practice manager. Usually the cost is between $50 and $150.

I have never paid for transfer of records. This is as recently as three years ago. Last time my doctor literally, in the appointment, selected ‘consultation notes’ from my electronic records followed by ‘print’ and ‘OK’, then had her admin staff fax it across.

Sure, it might be different if they were hard copy notes that have to be manually copied. Otherwise, it does sound and feel like an act of charging simply because they can.

I didn’t know doctors did charge to transfer records. I wasn’t charged anything when I switched doctors

I have done this twice and was not charged at all… it was 5 years ago so that may have changed but i dont think so

Here is the AMA report which may help.
AUSTRALIAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION :
To ensure appropriate on going care, when a patient transfers to other medical practitioners, medical practitioners should, when asked by a patient, make available either a copy of the original record or a summary. The reasonable cost for this service should be borne by the patient.
While records containing patient medical information do not belong to the patient, the patient has a legal right to access those records.
When a patient requests that his/her records be made available to another medical practitioner, a medical practitioner should act on that request.
Medical practitioners are under no obligation to provide their original records. These should be retained by the practitioner who created them.
A copy of a patient’s record may be sent to the patient’s new practitioner. Depending on the size and/or complexity of the record, medical practitioners may wish to provide a health summary instead, if the patient agrees.
Copies of test results and other investigations, including plans of management should be made available. Copies of clinical reports from other medical practitioners about the patient may be included.
Doctors should be entitled to recover from the patient or from any other legally authorised person or authority requesting the information, the reasonable cost of providing access to the information contained in a medical record.

I transferred mine for my Doctor and Dentist at no cost.

It’s a very time consuming process to tranfer an entire patient record. Having said that it sounds as though it was very costly considering that you are willing to travel such a big distance.

I had our health records transferred when we moved last year. It didn’t cost anything and it shouldn’t.

Indeed, if you are registred in Myhealthrecord.com.au, all the health professionals may access your files. https://myhealthrecord.gov.au/internet/mhr/publishing.nsf/content/home I put the link if you want to give a look.

Also; I thought there is a proposal for all records to be shared/accessed by all medical providers; therefore a cost seems strange?

I’ve never had a need to transfer records as yet – although it may happen when we move next year – I honestly didn’t or don’t believe there should be a fee – they are your records after all! I would be looking into this further and I will certainly be asking the question myself during my next visit.

I’ve never been charged for having my records transferred; it’s standard practice! I would be speaking to someone higher up, they could be making money from innocent people when they shouldn’t be. Stealing!

I had no idea that payment is required for the transfer of records. Maybe check on this to make sure?

I’ve never heard before that you need to pay to transfer records.