Transferring medical records to a new doctor is usually straightforward, and in many cases your new provider can pull your records electronically without much effort on your part. Federal law guarantees your right to access and share your health information, and most modern health systems have digital tools that make the process faster than it used to be. Here’s how to handle it depending on your situation.
Start by Asking Your New Doctor’s Office
Before you do anything yourself, call your new provider’s office and ask how they prefer to receive records. Many practices handle the transfer for you. They’ll have you sign a release form at or before your first appointment, then request the records directly from your previous provider. Under federal privacy law, one doctor can share your health information with another doctor who is treating you without needing a separate written authorization from you. This means your old provider can send records to your new one as part of routine care coordination.
If both providers use the same electronic health record system, the transfer can happen almost instantly. Epic, the most widely used system in the U.S., has a feature called Care Everywhere that automatically finds your chart at other organizations when you register as a new patient. If your old pediatrician and your new primary care doctor both use Epic, for example, the system can locate your existing record and make it available to your new provider in time for your first visit. You don’t need to request anything manually in that scenario.
How to Request Records Yourself
If your new doctor asks you to bring records, or if you want a personal copy, you’ll need to submit a request to your previous provider. Most offices have a medical records release form you can fill out in person, by mail, or sometimes through the patient portal. The form typically asks for your name, date of birth, the date range of records you want, the specific types of records (lab results, imaging, visit notes, immunizations), and where to send them.
Be specific about what you need. If you’re switching primary care doctors, requesting your full chart makes sense. If you’re seeing a new specialist, you may only need records related to the condition they’ll be managing. Ask your new provider what they want so you don’t pay for copies of records nobody will read.
Your previous provider is required by federal law to respond to your request within 30 days, with a possible 30-day extension if they notify you in writing and explain the delay. In practice, many offices fulfill requests within a week or two. If you’re on a tight timeline before a first appointment, mention that when you submit the request.
Use Your Patient Portal for Quick Access
If your former doctor’s office uses a patient portal like MyChart, you may be able to download much of your health information yourself and share it directly. Portals typically give you access to visit summaries, lab results, medication lists, immunization records, and sometimes imaging reports.
MyChart also offers a feature called Share Everywhere, which lets you generate a temporary share code on your phone. You give that code to your new doctor, and it grants them browser-based access to your medical record for a limited time. This can be especially useful during an urgent visit or when you’re seeing someone outside your usual health system.
Portal downloads won’t always include everything in your chart. Detailed provider notes, pathology reports, or older records that were scanned into the system may not appear. For a complete transfer, a formal records request is still the most reliable option.
What It Should Cost
When you request your own records, federal law limits what a provider can charge you. For electronic copies of records that are already stored electronically, the maximum fee is $6.50 per request, covering labor, supplies, and postage. Per-page fees are not allowed for electronic records maintained in electronic form.
Per-page charges only apply when the records exist on paper and you’re requesting paper copies or asking the office to scan paper files into a digital format. Even then, the fee must be “reasonable and cost-based” and can only cover the actual labor of copying, the supplies used, and postage if you want them mailed. Providers cannot charge you for searching for your records, retrieving them, or maintaining the systems that store them.
If an office quotes you a fee that seems excessive, especially something like hundreds of dollars for electronic records, push back. Some offices mistakenly apply state-level medical records rates that are meant for third-party requests (like from attorneys or insurance companies), not for patients requesting their own information. The federal HIPAA fee limits override those state rates when you’re requesting records for yourself.
Mental Health Records Have Extra Protections
Most of your medical record transfers the same way regardless of specialty, but psychotherapy notes are a notable exception. These are the personal notes a therapist writes during or after a session to document their observations and impressions. They’re kept separate from the rest of your medical record, and federal law requires your written authorization before they can be shared with another provider, even for treatment purposes. This is stricter than the rule for all other health records.
General mental health records, like diagnoses, medication lists, treatment plans, and session dates, are not psychotherapy notes. Those transfer under the same rules as any other medical information. The distinction matters: if you’re switching therapists, your new therapist can receive your treatment history and diagnoses without extra hurdles, but the detailed session notes from your previous therapist require your specific, separate consent.
Some states have confidentiality laws for mental health and substance use records that are even more restrictive than the federal baseline. If your transfer involves behavioral health records, your provider’s office can walk you through any additional authorization forms.
What to Do if a Provider Delays or Refuses
Providers are not allowed to withhold your records because you have an unpaid balance, and they cannot unreasonably delay a transfer. The 21st Century Cures Act, passed in 2016, established that sharing electronic health information is the expected norm. It specifically prohibits “information blocking,” meaning practices that interfere with access to or exchange of electronic health data. For healthcare providers, the standard is whether they know a practice is unreasonable and likely to interfere with access. When a provider receives a request, they must fulfill it in the manner you asked for, or if that’s technically impossible, offer an alternative without unnecessary delay.
If you’ve waited more than 30 days without receiving your records or an explanation, you can file a complaint with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights. You can do this online at the HHS website. Most providers respond quickly once they realize a formal complaint is on the table, so a polite but firm follow-up call mentioning your rights under HIPAA often resolves the issue before it gets to that point.
A Practical Timeline for Switching Doctors
If you’re planning a transition rather than handling an emergency, the smoothest approach is to start about two to three weeks before your first appointment with your new provider. Call the new office first to find out what records they need and whether they handle the request themselves. If you need to request records on your own, submit the release form right away and specify that you’d like electronic copies sent directly to the new provider’s office, or to your email or patient portal if that’s an option.
Keep a personal copy of key documents: your current medication list, recent lab results, immunization history, and any specialist reports. Having these on hand at your first visit ensures your new doctor has the essentials even if the full record transfer hasn’t arrived yet. For chronic conditions, bringing a brief written summary of your diagnosis timeline, past treatments, and what’s currently working can save significant time during that first appointment.