Your Health Information Privacy Rights
Your Health Information
Privacy Rights
Providers and health insurers who are required to follow
this law must comply with your right to…
Privacy is important
to all of us
Ask to see and get a copy of your health records
You can ask to see and get a copy of your medical record and other health
information. You may not be able to get all of your information in a few
You have privacy rights under
special cases. For example, if your doctor decides something in your file
a federal law that protects
might endanger you or someone else, the doctor may not have to give this
your health information.
information to you.
These rights are important
In most cases,
your copies must be given to you within 30 days, but
for you to know. You can
this can be extended for another 30 days if you are given a reason.
exercise these rights, ask
Y
ou may have to pay for the cost of copying and mailing if you request
questions about them, and
copies and mailing.
file a complaint if you think
your rights are being denied
Have corrections added to your health information
or your health information
You can ask to change any wrong information in your file or add
isn’t being protected.
information to your file if it is incomplete. For example, if you and your
hospital agree that your file has the wrong result for a test, the hospital
Who must follow this law?
must change it. Even if the hospital believes the test result is correct,
Most doctors,
nurses,
you still have the right to have your disagreement noted in your file.
pharmacies, hospitals,
In most cases the file should be changed within 60 days,
but the
clinics, nursing homes,
hospital can take an extra 30 days if you are given a reason.
and many other health
Receive a notice that tells you how your
care providers
health information is used and shared
Health insurance companies,
You can learn how your health information is used and shared by your provider
HMOs, most employer group
or health insurer. They must give you a notice that tells you how they may use
health plans
and share your health information and how you can exercise
C
ertain government
your rights. In most cases, you should get this notice on your
programs that pay for
first visit to a provider or in the mail from your health insurer,
health care, such as
and you can ask for a copy at any time.
Medicare and Medicaid
Decide whether to give your permission before your
information can be used or shared for certain purposes
In general, your health information cannot be given
to your employer, used or shared for things like sales
cal s or advertising, or used or shared for many other
purposes unless you give your permission by signing
an authorization form. This authorization form must
tel you who wil get your information and what your
information will be used for.
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Your Health Information
Privacy Rights
Providers and health insurers who are required to follow this
law must comply with your right to…
Privacy is important
Get a report on when and why your health information was shared
to all of us
Under the law, your health information may be used and shared for particular
reasons, like making sure doctors give good care, making sure nursing
Other privacy rights
homes are clean and safe, reporting when the flu is in your area, or making
You may have other health
required reports to the police, such as reporting gunshot wounds. In many
information rights under your
cases, you can ask for and get a list of who your health information has been
state’s laws. When these
shared with for these reasons.
laws affect how your health
Y
ou can get this report for free once a year.
information can be used or
In most cases you should get the report within 60 days,
but it can take
shared, that should be made
an extra 30 days if you are given a reason.
clear in the notice you receive.
Ask to be reached somewhere other than home
For more information
You can make reasonable requests to be contacted at different places or
This is a brief summary of
in a different way. For example, you can have the nurse call you at your
your rights and protections
office instead of your home, or send mail to you in an envelope instead of on a
under the federal health
postcard. If sending information to you at home might put you in danger, your
information privacy law. You
health insurer must talk, call, or write to you where you ask and in the way
can ask your provider or
you ask, if the request is reasonable.
health insurer questions about
how your health information
Ask that your information not be shared
is used or shared and about
You can ask your provider or health insurer not to share your health information
your rights. You also can
with certain people, groups, or companies. For example, if you go to a clinic,
learn more, including how to
you could ask the doctor not to share your medical record with other doctors or
file a complaint with the U.S.
nurses in the clinic. However, they do not have to agree to do what you ask.
Government, at the website at
File complaints
www.hhs.gov/ocr/hipaa/.
If you believe your information was used
or shared in a way that is not allowed
under the privacy law, or if you were not
Published by:
able to exercise your rights, you can file
a complaint with your provider or health
insurer. The privacy notice you receive
from them wil tel you who to talk to and
how to file a complaint. You can also file
U.S. Department of
a complaint with U.S. Government.
Health & Human Services
Office for Civil Rights
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