How to get Medical Records

Medical Records are only available with the permission of the individual involved. There are many companies that will do medical records retrieval. As an individual you are protected by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, as amended (HIPAA). This Act has standards to ensure that any individually identifiable information has its privacy protected. The HIPAA places boundaries on how to get medical records. Information disclosed must be of the absolute minimum for the purpose of the disclosure and that purpose must be clearly stated. Under the Act you can ask to see and get medical records from anyone who has retrieved records with your authorization, within 30 days of the request. Your doctor, health care provider, health insurance company, HMO’s, most employer group health plans and certain government programs, such as Medicare and Medicaid all have to abide by the HIPAA. You can ask to change any wrong information in your file or add information if it is incomplete. You also have the right to have a disagreement added to your file if you don’t agree with some of the information held. You have a right to know how your health information is used and shared by your provider or health insurer. In general, your information can’t be given to your employer, used or shared for things like sales calls or advertising, or used for any other purpose unless you have given permission by signing an authorization form stating its purpose clearly.

It may be that you need medical records for health insurance purposes and you may not be sure How To Obtain Medical Records. You can sign an authorization form from your insurer as long as it is clear what their purpose is, and leave it to them. They will probably use one of the many medical records retrieval companies to do this. These companies should follow the HIPAA recommendations.

There may be occasions when you need legal help to claim for a health issue. With the trauma of a legal case, the last thing you want to have to worry about is How To Obtain Medical Records. Again, you can authorize your attorney to do this for you.

When you apply for life insurance you will again, need your medical records and as before can authorize your agent to obtain medical records on your behalf.

Whichever route you use, you can be sure that the HIPAA will protect your rights.

Medretrieve provides cost-effective and professional services in medical records retrieval. If you’re a professional, then come and visit us for more info on how to get medical records for your clients.

Tom Jackinson is an injury lawyer and writer on How To Obtain Medical Records for injury lawyers cases. He now serves medical records company Medretrieve.