Most families already have copies of reports, results and letters.
Associated providers are encouraged and facilitated to copy their letters and results to parents via email. Most do this routinely when sending them to the GP or other specialists. The Prosper Paediatrics team also emails letters, bookings and billing matters on behalf of your provider. These emails will be from our email domain @pab.healthcare.
Your provider’s correspondence from and to your GP or other specialists, pathology results and radiology reports ordered by your provider will generally be in the file if sent electronically or generated within the practice software.
If documents are provided to Prosper Paediatrics by email, fax, post or by hand, they will be attached to the file. Families usually have, or can acquire a copy of these from the sender. Families will normally have copies of any reports by other providers.
Unless families opt out, letters, pathology results, and reports are uploaded to your child’s myHealth account. Pathology and radiology reports can be readily accessed free of charge by your GP or other specialists.
Patients are routinely provided with or offered receipts and Medicare Statements. MyGov and your bank statements also provide information about your payments and rebates.
Providing a copy of records or documents is an additional service with associated administrative costs. Fees are charged for such requests. The fees are set out below.
When you submit a request for a copy of records, you agree to pay the invoiced amount to cover the full costs of the service.
Please submit your request using the online Request Form.
Once all verifications and payment are completed, a copy of the requested record(s) is transferred by email to the recipient's verified email address
Payment methods
Please pay by
bank transfer and email a copy of your bank remittance statement (recommended)
by EFTPOS over the phone or at the reception desk (cash is not accepted).
The phones may be busy. Please do not rely on staff to call you for payment.
Additional fees may be invoiced after your payment of the minimum charge to cover any unanticipated additional costs, as explained below.
Consent requirements
The law protects a patient's privacy and requires us to obtain their consent before sharing this information with a third party, such as a new GP, paediatrician, other specialist, school, or any other person or entity. For patients under 16, parental or guardian consent is required. Parents are third parties once the patient turns 16 and such patients must provide their own written consent/request.
We will need to verify the patient's/parent’s identity, valid consent, email address, and phone number. Requests can only be submitted and processed, and verifications conducted in accordance with the Respect and Trust Policy.
Generally, an in-person meeting with a manager and identification documents will be required for verification of legal consent, if
The patient has turned 16, and they have not recently provided us with their verified consent to share their information with a parent;
The patient, parent, or carer making the request is not recently well known to the practice.
There are significant medico-legal or other privacy concerns.
If required, identification documents needed will include at least an official photo ID (usually a driver’s licence or passport) and a Medicare card. Other requirements may include additional steps or other evidence to verify the patient's or parent's identity, consent, email address and phone number, as the manager deems necessary.
Patients (or previous patients) aged 16 or older
Patients or former patients aged 16 or older at the time of the request must provide their written consent, a personal phone number, and an email address. If they have not recently provided written consent to share with their parents whilst attending the practice, they will need to meet with a manager in person to verify their identity and consent and pay the invoice. They are welcome to attend this meeting with their parent if they wish to have their support.
Fees
$35 is the minimum fee for providing a copy of letters, reports and results in the file to a patient's email address.
$45 is the minimum fee if you also require File Attachments or specific documents, and these documents can be provided as a single PDF with no redaction or compression.
File attachments typically include reports, updates, questions, and forms (as explained above). Attachments may also include other correspondence between you and Prosper Paediatrics regarding bookings, billing, consents, policies, etc.
Plus an additional minimum* $10 fee for each additional PDF required and for each file compression needed to allow emailing of the PDF File Attachment(s). Medium compression is tried first, but high compression, redaction and splitting of files may be necessary.
Plus a $35 fee if your request is for urgent provision within 5 business days.
Plus the following fees to cover any necessary additional work and costs required by your request:
A minimum of $15* to send to third parties:
$15 if you request that we send the letters and results on file.
a minimum of $35* if file attachments are to be sent to the third party (e.g., reports provided by you or others via email, fax, post, or hand delivery). This is to cover the reasonable cost of removing attachments that are not relevant to the Third Party’s care of the patient. The fee will depend on the number of attachments to be checked for possible redaction and the time required to perform this redaction.
$30 or more*, where verification of identity, legal standing, privacy issues, contact details, consent &/or clarification about the requested documents is needed, and such situations may include:
where the patient is aged 16 or more;
where the request is made some time after the last engagement with providers associated with Prosper Paediatrics.
where extra communication, checks or requests for information about the transfer are necessary;
For patients under 16, parental or guardian consent is required.
A minimum of $40* where there are or were significant relevant privacy concerns, parental estrangement or other medico-legal complexity, or relevant court orders about access, guardianship, power of attorney, parental responsibility, or access to information.
Any costs for necessary legal advice about the request for records.
Any costs of the redaction of records or provision of a summary or report, if required*.
$40 plus the costs of paper, printing, compilation, and sending for transfer by post, courier, fax, or other means, apart from email.
A minimum of $15, where the request is to be paid by DCP.
*Any additional amounts above these minimum fees will be billed to cover additional administrative work or costs above the expected minimum at the rate of $15 per 5 minutes. Any summary letter or report written by your provider is billed at their hourly rate.
Requests for copies of a patient’s record of care
If a video meeting is agreed, please access the video reception via this link.
If a meeting is required, this will generally be a face-to-face meeting at our reception desk in our rooms in Toorak Gardens: