A licensee may not require prior payment of charges for podiatric services related to the records as a condition for providing them.

• A. True
• B. False
• C. Only for new patients
• D. Only if the record is under one year old

Answer: (D)

Access to patient records is generally protected, and a licensee cannot hold back podiatric records as a condition of care due to unpaid charges. But there’s an exception based on how new the record is: you may require payment before releasing records that are under one year old. If the record is older than one year, the presiding rule does not allow withholding on the basis of unpaid charges. So the statement isn’t universally true; the situation where payment can be required applies only to records created or covering the last year. That’s why the correct interpretation is that payment may be required only for records under one year old.