How to Get Your Medical Records in Berks County

If you're wondering how to get medical records in Berks, the quickest copy is the one you download from your patient portal, the website or app where your test results show up; all four health systems serving Berks have one, and St. Luke's and Penn State Health say you can download or print from theirs. For a paper copy, a copy for a new doctor, or a record from a closed practice, you sign a form. HIPAA, the federal privacy law that gives you the right to a copy, holds the fee for your own copy to the cost of copying; a copy the office sends to someone else is capped by Pennsylvania's per-page schedule.

If you've just picked a practice off the county's doctors page, start here before the first visit.

The fastest way to get your medical records is your patient portal.

MyLVHN has a "Request Record" screen, and a request to Tower's records office can be delivered into MyTowerHealth, marked "Receive in 3-5 days"; so start there.

How do I request medical records from a Berks hospital or practice?

When the portal doesn't have it, you send a written request, and under HIPAA you have "a right of access to inspect and obtain a copy", "except for: (i) Psychotherapy notes; and (ii) Information compiled in reasonable anticipation of, or for use in, a civil, criminal, or administrative action or proceeding.", plus a short list of other grounds for refusing, each with a written denial. An office may require it in writing, and every Berks system uses a release form, the signed form an office needs before it sends your records to anyone else; here's where each takes it.

System	How to send a request	What it says about cost
Tower Health (Reading Hospital and Tower Health Medical Group practices)	Online from its records page, or a printed form in person at the 5th Avenue Lobby in West Reading (weekdays 8 to 4:30), by fax to 484-628-9777, or by mail to P.O. Box 16052, Reading, PA 19612-6052; records office 484-628-8252	"We may charge for copying records"; any bill comes in the mail
Penn State Health St. Joseph Medical Center	The release form by mail to Health Information Management, Mail Code CA700, P.O. Box 850, Hershey, PA 17033-0850, or by fax to 717-531-5068; or call 833-477-4446 for mailing or pickup	Its form: "there may be costs" for documents beyond its suggested abstracts; copies to another provider go at no charge in 7 to 10 business days
St. Luke's (including St. Luke's Physician Group practices)	A "Medical record request" message in MyChart, or the release form by email to releaseofinformation@sluhn.org (practices: slpgreleaseofinformation@sluhn.org) or by fax to 833-932-1185; no in-person pickup; 484-526-4719, weekdays 8 to 4:30	"St. Luke's charges only the state regulated charge"
Lehigh Valley Health Network	MyLVHN's "Request Record" screen, or the release form (last four of your Social Security number; no electronic signatures) to the records office the form lists for your hospital (one office per hospital; for Lehigh Valley Hospital Cedar Crest, Muhlenberg and six sister sites: fax 610-402-5823, ROIMack@lvhn.org, P.O. Box 689, Allentown, PA 18105-1556, 610-402-8240); practice records through the practice	"Charges may be associated with this request"; the invoice comes from MRO, the records company it uses

From each system's own records page and release form, read October 29, 2026.

St. Luke's prints its own list of who may sign, from the patient to a parent, guardian or estate representative. For a teen's record, the office that holds it tells you whether the teen signs, the parent, or both; Lehigh Valley's form instructions, for one, say a minor 14 or older who consented to their own care must sign.

How do I transfer my medical records to a new doctor?

Ask the old office to send them to the new one. Lehigh Valley's form mentions a record summary, the shortened chart offices send another doctor, which may cost less. For a child or teen, make the records request the first step, because Children's Clinic of Wyomissing, for one, lists a form authorizing the transfer of records from the old office among the forms new patients bring to the first visit; finding a doctor who's taking new patients covers the new-patient steps.

What can a Berks office charge for copies of my records?

For your own copy, HIPAA allows "a reasonable, cost-based fee" covering only copying labor, supplies, postage and a summary you agreed to in advance. A download or emailed copy of a record the office keeps electronically can be billed as a flat $6.50; the federal Office for Civil Rights calls that flat fee "an option", and says it "is not the maximum amount that can be charged for all individual requests".

Pennsylvania's Department of Health says the search-and-retrieval fee "cannot be charged if requestor is requesting their own personal health record", and the same rule governs a request by the patient's personal representative, someone with legal authority to act for them.

Pennsylvania's schedule, adjusted every January 1, caps the per-page charge; as of 2026 the caps are $2 a page for pages 1 to 20, $1.48 for pages 21 to 60 and 52 cents a page after that, plus a $29.61 search-and-retrieval fee that can't be charged for your own record and a flat $37.52 for records supporting a Social Security or needs-based benefit claim, with postage and delivery at actual cost.

It's a ceiling: a provider "shall not charge a patient or his designee, including his attorney, a fee in excess of" those amounts, and the Department of Health says it "is not authorized to enforce these charges", so an overcharge on your own copy is a matter for the federal Office for Civil Rights, which says it enforces that right, and otherwise for the office or a lawyer. The $37.52 flat fee is for records requested to support a Social Security or needs-based benefit claim, and the statute says the requester must give the office "clear and convincing documentation" of that purpose, so send proof of the claim with the form.

Two pediatric practices print flat fees: Reading Pediatrics lists $20 to pick up a flash drive, $25 to mail it, and $40 for paper copies; Children's Clinic of Wyomissing's form for sending a child's chart out is $30 per chart on a flash drive plus certified mailing, with Medical Assistance families exempt, and the form says that once the request is completed the child is no longer its patient.

A copy you direct to someone else, a new practice included, is priced differently: the federal cost-of-copying cap "does not apply to an individual's request to transmit records to a third party", apart from an electronic copy of an electronic record, so the state's per-page schedule is the ceiling and the office's own printed fee is the number to ask about: Penn State Health sends records to a provider at no charge. This is general information about how records requests work in Berks, not legal advice: a question about what's in your record goes to the doctor who wrote it, and a dispute over a record is a question for a lawyer (how to find a lawyer in Berks County).

What if the practice closed or the doctor retired?

The State Board of Medicine's rule for MDs says "A patient's medical record shall be retained by a physician for at least 7 years from the date of the last medical service", and a minor's "until 1 year after the minor patient reaches majority". The Pennsylvania Medical Society's guidance (not law) says a retiring physician should tell patients in writing how to get copies, and that a group practice keeping a departed doctor's records "must provide patients with copies". A solo doctor who sold the practice or stored the charts elsewhere must tell patients where they are, it says.

HIPAA says an office that doesn't hold your record but knows where it is "must inform the individual where to direct the request for access."

In order: the practice's last letter or phone line; whichever practice, health system or records company took the charts; and a complaint to the Office for Civil Rights at 1-800-368-1019.

How do I get vaccination records for school in Pennsylvania?

Shot records come from PIERS, the state's immunization registry, where pharmacies and Vaccines for Children providers "are required to report" the shots they give and other offices report "on a voluntary basis", so a dose can be missing. Its public portal lets anyone 18 or older, and parents or guardians of a child under 18, "access, save, and print an official record". You sign in with a Keystone Login account, pick your own record or a dependent's, and get a code sent to the phone number or email you give, which "must match what your provider has on file".

If that contact is gone, a PIERS Immunization Record Update Request form, with proof of identification uploaded, has the helpdesk search; its page says to "allow up to 5 business days". An adult who can't use the portal uses the Department's release form instead, with "a minimum of 10 business days", so start early.

For school, the Department's FAQ says a homeschooling parent's signed attestation isn't accepted in place of "the official immunization records with a date of birth listed on the record", and a child transferring in who "has difficulty providing immunization records immediately upon enrollment" gets "30 days to provide immunization records to the school". where flu and COVID shots are given in Berks covers a missing shot.

Questions Berks readers ask about records requests.

How long does a medical records request take?

The federal limit: an office "must act on a request for access no later than 30 days after receipt of the request", it may extend that "by no more than 30 days", it gets only one such extension, and only with "a written statement of the reasons for the delay and the date by which the covered entity will complete its action".

Can someone else pick up my records, and do I need ID?

Tower says anyone picking up an adult's records needs "a note signed by the patient" or medical power of attorney or guardianship papers, plus "a driver's license or other photo identification card"; Reading Pediatrics says "Please be prepared to show ID".

Open your portal tonight; if the record isn't there, print the form from the office that holds the chart, sign it and send it. If the reason is a new doctor, have the copy sent to the practice you picked from the county's doctors page before you walk in.

Sources

• eCFR, 45 CFR 164.524, "Access of individuals to protected health information" (current as of Oct. 27, 2026): the right of access and its two exceptions, the written-request rule, the 30 days and one 30-day extension, directing a copy to someone else, the four fee elements, the must-tell-you-where rule, and the written-denial rule.
• 42 U.S.C. § 17935(e) (Cornell LII): the labor-cost cap on an electronic copy of an electronic record.
• HHS Office for Civil Rights, "Clarification of Permissible Fees for HIPAA Right of Access: Flat Rate Option of Up to $6.50 is Not a Cap" (May 23, 2016; reviewed April 7, 2026): the $6.50 flat fee as one option, not a maximum.
• HHS, "Important Notice Regarding Individuals' Right of Access to Health Records" (Jan. 28, 2020; archived copy): the fee cap applies to your own copy, not to a copy you direct to a third party, except an electronic copy of an electronic record; OCR will continue to enforce the right of access.
• Pennsylvania Bulletin, Department of Health, "Amendments to Charges for Medical Records" (55 Pa.B. 8441, Dec. 13, 2025) and PA Department of Health, "Medical Record Fees" (effective Jan. 1, 2026): the per-page caps, the search fee and its exception, the flat fees, the HIPAA paragraph, and "not authorized to enforce".
• 42 Pa.C.S. § 6155, Rights of patients and 42 Pa.C.S. § 6152, Subpoena of records: the right to copies without a subpoena, the fee ceiling tied to the subpoena schedule, and the annual adjustment.
• 49 Pa. Code § 16.95, Medical records (State Board of Medicine): how long MDs must keep records, adults and minors.
• PA Department of Health, "PIERS Public Portal" and "PIERS Immunization Record Update Request" (read Oct. 29, 2026): who can use the portal, the sign-in and code steps, which providers must report, the update form's proof-of-identification and five-business-day lines, and the release form's ten-business-day line.
• PA Department of Health, "School Frequently Asked Questions": official immunization records with a date of birth, and the 30 days a transferring child's family has to provide them.
• Tower Health, "Reading Hospital Medical Records", its hospital request form and its Tower Health Medical Group form (read Oct. 29, 2026): the online, in-person, fax and mail routes, the ID and pickup rules, portal delivery in 3 to 5 days, and the copying-charge line.
• Penn State Health, "Request Medical Records" and its release form (Rev. 7/24) (read Oct. 29, 2026): the portal, the phone and pickup routes, the no-charge transfer to a provider in 7 to 10 business days, the form's address and fax, and its costs line.
• St. Luke's University Health Network, "Medical Records" and its release form (Rev. 05/26) (read Oct. 29, 2026): the MyChart route, the email and fax routes, the hours, no in-person pickup, the list of who may sign, and the state-regulated charge.
• Lehigh Valley Health Network, "Medical Records", its release form (MRD-11), the form instructions and the MyLVHN steps (read Oct. 29, 2026): the portal route, the vendor MRO, the Section 8 contacts, the signature rule, the record summary, and who signs for a teen.
• Reading Pediatrics, "Forms" and its Medical Records Release Form (file dated 8.28.25): the $20, $25 and $40 options, ID, and who signs for a teen's mental health record.
• Children's Clinic of Wyomissing, "Patient Forms" and its "Request to Transfer Medical Record" (April 1, 2022): the records-transfer form among the new-patient forms, and the transfer-out form's $30 USB fee, Medical Assistance exemption and no-longer-a-patient note.
• Pennsylvania Medical Society, "Medical Record Disposition: A Physician's Guide" (Jan. 9, 2026): the society's guidance on notice to patients, group practices and solo physicians when a doctor retires or a practice closes.
• 42 Pa.C.S. § 6152.1, Limit on charges: the flat fee for records supporting a Social Security or needs-based claim and the documentation the requester gives the office.