65.2-604 - Furnishing copy of medical report.
§ 65.2-604. Furnishing copy of medical report.
A. Any health care provider attending an injured employee shall, upon requestof the injured employee, employer, insurer, or a certified rehabilitationprovider as provided in Article 2 (§ 54.1-3510 et seq.) of Chapter 35 ofTitle 54.1 providing services to the injured employee, or of anyrepresentative thereof, furnish a copy of any medical report to the injuredemployee, employer, insurer, or a certified rehabilitation provider asprovided in Article 2 (§ 54.1-3510 et seq.) of Chapter 35 of Title 54.1providing services to the injured employee, or to any representative thereof,or to each of them upon request for such medical report.
B. Whenever any health care provider attending an injured employee refers theemployee or transfers responsibility for his care to another health careprovider, the referring or transferring provider, upon receipt of a requesttherefor, shall promptly transfer or cause to be transferred to the new orsucceeding provider, or to the employee or someone acting on behalf of theemployee, copies of all diagnostic test results, x-ray photographs, and othermedical records pertaining to the employee's injury for which furthertreatment is to be sought from the succeeding provider.
In the event of such referral or transfer, the succeeding provider, if givenany such diagnostic test results, x-ray photographs and other medical recordspertaining to the employee's injury which were performed or recorded withinthe preceding 60 days by a referring or transferring provider, shall notrepeat any such diagnostic tests or procedures previously conducted withoutmaking a good faith attempt to use them unless there is a medical necessityto do so as certified by a qualified physician on behalf of the succeedingprovider. If the succeeding health care provider violates the requirements ofthis paragraph, such succeeding provider shall not be entitled tocompensation or reimbursement from the injured employee's employer or theemployer's insurer for any repeated test or procedure not so certified to bemedically necessary, nor may the succeeding provider require the employee tobear any cost associated with the repeated test or procedure which would havebeen the responsibility of the employer or his insurer but for the provisionsof this subsection.
C. As used in this section, the term "health care provider" shall have thesame meaning as set forth in § 8.01-581.1, except that state-operatedfacilities shall also be considered health care providers for the purposes ofthis section.
(1970, c. 470, § 65.1-88.1; 1982, c. 128; 1991, c. 355; 1994, c. 685; 1998,c. 431; 1999, c. 314; 2000, c. 542.)