New Medical Privacy Rules

The New York Times has a story about new medical privacy rules being issued by the U.S. Government. For the first time, U.S. citizens will have a right to inspect and copy information in their medical files.

Comments

Right to inspect med. files

[Jim Tyre]

Michael writes that "For the first time, U.S. citizens will have a right to inspect and copy information in their medical files."

The sentence should read that, for the first time, U.S. citizens "will have a federal right to inspect and copy ...." Most states already give such rights to patients. In California, for example, Health and Safety Code Section 123110(a) provides in part that:

any adult patient of a health care provider, any minor patient authorized by law to consent to medical treatment, and any patient representative shall be entitled to inspect patient records upon presenting to the health care provider a written request for those records and upon payment of reasonable clerical costs incurred in locating and making the records available.

Then subsection (b) provides a right to copy all records as to which a patient has a right of inspection.

The regulations accomplish some things, but the great majority of Americans already have the right to inspect and copy their medical records.