CDT Launches Online Resource to Answer Questions on “Getting Your Medical Records”
Washington, DC — Today, the Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT) launched an online public resource to answer common questions about obtaining and correcting medical records. The webpage, "Getting Your Medical Records," provides information on patients' legal rights to access, copy and correct personal health data, including tips on how to protect health data they obtain.
With access to medical information, patients are able to monitor health conditions, conduct research on treatments, review records for errors, and avoid redundant tests by more easily sharing their records with new health care providers. Patients will also be able to use their data to take advantage of digital health applications, which will, in turn, open the market to new, innovative health tools.
"Health IT provides the opportunity to put health data directly in patients' hands so they can make their own, informed decisions about their health care," said CDT Health Privacy Project Director Deven McGraw. "However, in order for the benefits of health IT to be fully realized, patients must know they have a legal right to obtain their medical records and what the steps are to obtain them. By answering common questions about obtaining medical records, this new resource will empower patients and benefit the healthcare industry as a whole."
The Getting Your Medical Records page explains:
- The benefits of getting your medical records,
- Your legal right to obtain and correct your records,
- What kind of records you can get and in what format,
- How long you’ll have to wait and how much it will cost to get your records,
- What you can do if your provider refuses to give you a copy, and
- How to safeguard paper and electronic copies of your medical information, including information on memory sticks/flash drives.
Getting Your Medical Records is located online here.