HIPAA Access Rights - A Patient's Important Tool for Her SSD claim
Updated: Sep 22, 2022
Updated: 9/22/2022
Note: This article/video is for general information only and is not legal advice to any particular reader or individual. For legal advice, you must specifically retain a lawyer who evaluates your specific situation.
Update 9/22/2022: For a Video explanation of how a patient can use HiTech HIPPA provisions to have affordable access to his records, click here!
A few years have passed, but the theme remains. A patient has a right to a copy of her medical records and a violation of that right can be complained to and enforced by the Office of Civil Rights. Attached is a 9/28/2015 letter from the Director of the Office of Civil Rights emphasizing this important right.
The Hi Tech provisions of HIPAA also speak volumes, and many medical providers or their third party contractors have shown difficulty understanding the obligations they are under. Similarly, the Cures Act's provision effective 4/5/21, prohibiting obstruction, is also very imperative in the battle for patient's to effectuate their right to their own medical records copies.
It is possible that reticent medical providers or third party information release companies, whose staff members may misunderstand their legal obligations under HIPAA, Cures, etc. will be forced to learn what they should be trained on by virtue of a complaint about their violative conduct to the enforcer: The OCR.
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