Our member Keith Boone with a great explanation of what to do when a provider’s office gives you the “I can’t do this because of HIPAA” about giving you your records:
http://motorcycleguy.blogspot.com/2014/01/knowing-who-to-talk-to-is-half-battle.html
A little teaser off the blog post:
I’m taking my own advice with this, and complaining to my physician office’s privacy officer, because while the organization will FAX records to another healthcare provider (whom I identify over the phone), they will not FAX them to my FAX machine AT MY home phone number (which is included in the record) at my request.
So, I get to do a little ‘splaining of HIPAA to my HCP, and I’ll be using OCR’s memo if I need it.
Can I request a copy of medical records for my own personal use
You can not only request a copy; you’re entitled to GET a copy, for any reason or no reason.
Check out this HHS page for more details on it.
https://www.hhs.gov/hipaa/for-individuals/right-to-access/index.html