republic-os/legislation/us/states/ca/20192020/ab-2520.md

---
type: "Bill"
title: "Access to medical records."
description: "Existing law governs a patient's access to their health records. Existing law requires a health care provider, as defined, to provide a patient or the patient's representative with all or any part of the patient's medical records that the patient has a right to inspect, subject to the payment of clerical costs incurred in locating and making the records available, following a written request from the patient. Existing law requires the health care provider to provide one copy of the relevant portion of the patient's record at no charge if the patient or patient's representative presents proof to the provider that the records are needed to support an appeal regarding eligibility for a public benefit program, as defined. Existing law makes a willful violation of these provisions by specified health care providers an infraction."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ca"
legislature: "California Legislature"
session: "20192020"
identifier: "AB 2520"
citation: "California AB 2520 (20192020)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Access to medical records."]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Chiu"]
version_count: 7
action_count: 24
vote_count: 6
first_action: "2020-02-19"
last_action: "2020-09-18"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/f78014c8-4699-470c-8266-b684c9c18477"
source_url: "http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB2520"
source_hash: "df5963ca1e1799c793e29f89f8ae42c0d435e2ffd80cd8f49993581aaafc2405"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-ca"]
---

# California AB 2520 (20192020) — Access to medical records.

Existing law governs a patient's access to their health records. Existing law requires a health care provider, as defined, to provide a patient or the patient's representative with all or any part of the patient's medical records that the patient has a right to inspect, subject to the payment of clerical costs incurred in locating and making the records available, following a written request from the patient. Existing law requires the health care provider to provide one copy of the relevant portion of the patient's record at no charge if the patient or patient's representative presents proof to the provider that the records are needed to support an appeal regarding eligibility for a public benefit program, as defined. Existing law makes a willful violation of these provisions by specified health care providers an infraction.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **02/19/20 - Introduced** (filed) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB2520&version=20190AB252099INT)
2. **05/04/20 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB2520&version=20190AB252098AMD)
3. **05/20/20 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB2520&version=20190AB252097AMD)
4. **06/26/20 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB2520&version=20190AB252096AMD)
5. **09/18/20 - Chaptered** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB2520&version=20190AB252094CHP)
6. **AB2520** (committee substitute) — [source](http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB2520)
7. **09/01/20 - Enrolled** (enrolled) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB2520&version=20190AB252095ENR)

## Votes

- Do pass. To Consent Calendar. — **18–0** (pass) · lower
- Do pass, but first be re-referred to the Committee on [Appropriations] with the recommendation: To Consent Calendar — **8–0** (pass) · upper
- Do pass as amended, and be re-referred to the Committee on [Appropriations] with recommendation: To Consent Calendar — **15–0** (pass) · lower
- Consent Calendar AB2520 — **39–0** (pass) · upper
- AB 2520 Chiu Consent Calendar Second Day — **76–0** (pass) · lower
- AB 2520 Chiu Concurrence in Senate Amendments — **75–0** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- Chiu — primary (person)
- Leyva — coauthor (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2020-02-19** Read first time. To print. `reading-1`
- **2020-02-20** From printer. May be heard in committee March 21.
- **2020-03-12** Referred to Coms. on HEALTH and P. & C.P. `referral-committee`
- **2020-03-17** In committee: Hearing postponed by committee.
- **2020-05-04** From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to Com. on HEALTH. Read second time and amended. `reading-1, reading-2, amendment-passage, amendment-introduction`
- **2020-05-05** Re-referred to Com. on HEALTH. `referral-committee`
- **2020-05-19** From committee: Amend, and do pass as amended and re-refer to Com. on APPR. with recommendation: To Consent Calendar. (Ayes 15. Noes 0.) (May 18). `amendment-passage, committee-passage, amendment-introduction`
- **2020-05-20** Read second time and amended. `amendment-passage, reading-1, reading-2`
- **2020-05-21** Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `referral-committee`
- **2020-06-02** From committee: Do pass. To Consent Calendar. (Ayes 18. Noes 0.) (June 2). `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage`
- **2020-06-03** Read second time. Ordered to Consent Calendar. `reading-1, reading-2`
- **2020-06-08** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Senate. (Ayes 76. Noes 0. Page 4727.) `passage, reading-3, reading-1`
- **2020-06-09** In Senate. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. `reading-1`
- **2020-06-23** Referred to Com. on HEALTH. `referral-committee`
- **2020-06-26** From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to committee. Read second time, amended, and re-referred to Com. on HEALTH. `reading-1, reading-2, amendment-passage, referral-committee, amendment-introduction`
- **2020-08-01** From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. with recommendation: To Consent Calendar. (Ayes 8. Noes 0.) (August 1). Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage, referral-committee`
- **2020-08-13** From committee: Be ordered to second reading file pursuant to Senate Rule 28.8 and ordered to Consent Calendar. `committee-passage, reading-2`
- **2020-08-14** Read second time. Ordered to Consent Calendar. `reading-1, reading-2`
- **2020-08-28** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Assembly. (Ayes 39. Noes 0. Page 4377.). `passage, reading-3, reading-1`
- **2020-08-28** In Assembly. Concurrence in Senate amendments pending.
- **2020-08-30** Senate amendments concurred in. To Engrossing and Enrolling. (Ayes 75. Noes 0. Page 5327.). `amendment-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2020-09-11** Enrolled and presented to the Governor at 3 p.m.
- **2020-09-18** Approved by the Governor. `executive-signature`
- **2020-09-18** Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 101, Statutes of 2020.

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/f78014c8-4699-470c-8266-b684c9c18477`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official California legislature records).