This bill adds a new section to chapter 70.02 RCW and amends multiple existing sections to change how patients and others may access health care information. It authorizes health care providers and facilities to charge a reasonable fee for providing records, allows providers to withhold disclosure until the fee is paid (subject to specified exceptions), and caps the fee at $50 when the information is stored electronically and delivered in electronic form to patients, patient representatives, licensed attorneys for the patient or estate, treating providers/facilities, patient-designated advocates, guardians, and to third parties acting on behalf of a provider (agents, vendors, business associates). The Department of Health must adopt rules setting fee standards that reflect electronic record searching, consider federal law, be based on actual costs for a particular patient’s records, and prohibit per-page fees. The bill revises authorization, access, and procedural rules for disclosure. It requires written, dated, signed authorizations that identify the information, recipients, disclosing providers, the patient, and an expiration, and it obligates providers to honor valid authorizations and to assist designated recipients unless access is lawfully denied. On written requests for records, providers must respond promptly and no later than 15 working days (or explain delays and provide a date not later than 21 working days). Providers are not required to create new records or reformat records into a requested form. The statute clarifies grounds for denying patient access, requires segregation of nondisclosable from disclosable information, and in some health/safety denial situations requires allowing another provider chosen by the patient to review the information. Enforcement is civil: a person who complies may sue a noncompliant provider or facility for relief including an order to comply and actual damages (excluding consequential/incidental damages); courts must award reasonable attorney fees and expenses to a prevailing patient; actions are barred unless brought within two years after discovery. The bill also amends confidentiality and disclosure rules relating to sexually transmitted disease testing, corrections-related testing, and mental health records. It restricts compelled disclosure of identities and STD-related records except under specified authorizations, specifies limited authorized disclosures (including to correctional health administrators for infection control), and requires immediate disclosure of certain correctional test results to exposed staff with counseling and confidentiality safeguards. It directs mental health service agencies to release specified commitment and treatment facts to certain authorities and agencies for official purposes, sets limits on purposes and confidentiality of information received, allows emergency oral disclosures with prompt written confirmation, and calls for a standard request form and response format. The act reenacts and amends multiple RCW sections listed in the bill header. Some details are missing from the extracted text: the newly added section number in chapter 70.02 RCW is not shown; portions of the definitions list are incomplete; specific cross-references to RCW 70.02.370 and certain HIPAA-related exceptions are cited but the full text of those exceptions is not included; and several excerpts are truncated mid-sentence, so precise wording and any additional procedural timelines or limits elsewhere in the bill are not visible here.

If enacted, patients and the people they designate will likely pay less when their records are delivered electronically to them or to listed recipients because providers and their vendors cannot charge more than $50 for that specific electronic delivery. Health care providers, facilities, and any contractors acting for them will still be allowed to charge a reasonable fee for other requests, can require payment before releasing records (subject to exceptions in federal law and other RCW sections), and must meet new Department of Health rules that require fees be based on actual search/production costs and not on per-page charges—although the bill doesn’t show when those rules must be adopted or the full scope of the exceptions tied to HIPAA and other cited sections. The bill also reinforces deadlines and process changes that affect providers’ workloads and legal risk: requests must be honored or responded to within 15 working days (21 in certain delays), providers don’t have to create new formats, and patients can sue providers for noncompliance with courts able to order compliance and award actual damages and attorneys’ fees (within a two-year discovery window), increasing potential liability for providers. Mental health, STD/HIV, and corrections-related disclosure rules in the text create specific mandatory sharing and counseling duties for agencies and correctional health staff and place limits on further disclosure, which will change the responsibilities and training needs of hospitals, mental health agencies, correctional facilities, public health officers, and prosecuting authorities; some implementation details and timing (including the Department of Health’s rule schedule and cross-reference exceptions) are not provided in the extracted text.