2. Pay for your records

Your health-care provider is allowed to charge you a fee to cover the costs of getting you the records. For example, they may charge you a photocopying fee or a fee to get an old record out of storage.  But the health-care provider cannot make a profit from your request.

If your health-care provider wants to charge you a fee, they must give you an estimate of the fee when you make your request.

Usually you pay the fee when you get the record. But if the fee is high because you’re asking for a lot of records, you may need to pay a deposit.

If you cannot afford the fee, you can ask your health-care provider to reduce it or waive it, which means you don’t pay any fees.

If your health-care provider refuses to reduce or waive your fees, you can complain to the Information and Privacy Commissioner (IPCO).

You can also complain to the IPCO if you think the fee is more than it costs them to get the records to you.