The epicrisis is free: what a clinic must give you at discharge at no cost

Two documents, two different rules

At discharge, it’s common for admissions or the cashier to lump “the paperwork” together as if it were one single billable procedure. It isn’t. The Regulation of Law N.° 29414 (D.S. N.° 027-2015-SA) distinguishes two documents with opposite cost rules, in the same article:

También podrá solicitar copia de la epicrisis de forma gratuita y de su historia clínica a su costo.

Read it twice: the epicrisis, free. The medical record, at your cost. They are not the same thing, and they are not billed the same way.

The epicrisis: the summary, and it’s free

The epicrisis is the medical summary of your care — the diagnosis, what you were treated for, and the instructions given at discharge. In practice, it’s the document most often requested afterward: for insurance, to justify medical leave, for a second opinion. Article 16 is explicit that requesting a copy of it carries no cost.

We found no condition, in the same regulation or in the General Health Law, tying that free status to being current on your treatment bill. They are two separate accounts: what you owe for the care itself, and your right to a free copy of that care’s summary.

The full medical record: the entire file, and it does cost something

What does cost money is requesting the complete file — not the summary, but your whole medical record. Article 25 of the same regulation sets two concrete rules:

Toda persona usuaria de los servicios de salud o su representante tiene derecho a solicitar copia completa de su historia clínica, la cual debe ser entregada en un plazo no mayor de cinco (5) días hábiles de recibida la solicitud. El solicitante asume los costos de reproducción que supone el pedido.

The General Health Law (Article 29, closing paragraph) confirms the same rule from the other side: the facility is obligated to deliver it, but “el costo que irrogue este pedido es asumido por el interesado” (the cost of the request is borne by the requester). The key word is “reproducción” — what gets charged is the reproduction cost, not a free-floating administrative fee the clinic sets on its own.

What this page cannot confirm for you

There’s one point we’re leaving open rather than guessing at: we could not verify, against MINSA’s clinical technical norm (the one that defines, in clinical detail, exactly what an epicrisis is and how it differs from documents like the “informe de alta” some clinics use as a commercial name), whether both terms always refer to the same document. The official host that should hold that norm blocked access during this research. If you’re handed a document called “informe de alta” and asked to pay for it, the safer position is to cite Article 16 anyway and ask, in writing, how it differs from the free epicrisis the regulation names.

If they charge you anyway

Start by requesting the document by its technical name — “epicrisis,” not “the discharge paperwork” — and cite Article 16 if they insist on charging for it. If it isn’t resolved on the spot, the path is the same as for any other clinic failure: the Libro de Reclamaciones en Salud first, and if that isn’t enough, a free denuncia with SUSALUD, no lawyer needed. The page on complaints to SUSALUD has the full process with its deadlines.