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Santa Rosa Medical Records

In Santa Rosa medical records are important for many reasons. Your medical records hold information, which can dictate your future healthcare, including what kind of treatment you can and should receive, as well as how your insurance provider may determine what they will cover financially, and what you will be responsible for out of pocket. In fact, your medical records may determine whether or not you are eligible for insurance or they may reflect whether or not your physicians are doing their jobs adequately. What if they indicate to you one thing and then put something else in your records? How will you ever know if you don’t see them?

For questions call our Santa Rosa office at 707-525-1212 or for Sacramento, call 916-448-1010 or contact us online today.

 

You deserve access to your records.

California Health and Safety Code Section 123110 explicitly permits an adult patient, a minor patient who by law can consent to medical treatment, or your personal representative (such as the person to whom you have granted power of attorney) the right to scrutinize patient records upon written request to the physician and payment of any fees charged for access to the records.

California Health and Safety Codes for Medical Records

California Health and Safety Code obliges the physician to allow you to see your records during business hours within five working days after they receive your written request. Another person must accompany you, and you may have to show a valid I.D. You are entitled to make copies of your records upon written request to the physician. Records may contain your health history, diagnosis, your condition, and administered or prescribed medications and treatments. Your physician must give you copies within 15 days of receiving your written request.

Exceptions

The law does not include any transfers of your records to other health professionals or to anyone else besides you or authorized individuals. Additionally, copies of X-rays or other imaging do not have to be provided to you if the originals are transmitted to another health care provider upon your written request and within 15 days of receiving your request.

Can your doctor summarize results rather than giving the entire document?

California Health and Safety Code Section 123130 allows the doctor to provide you a detailed summary of your record instead of conceding access to the entire documentation. This summary must be made obtainable to you within ten business days from the date of your written request. The summary must contain significant information, including—

  • Chief complaint
  • Consultative and referral findings
  • Diagnosis
  • Treatment plan
  • Treatment progress
  • Prognosis
  • Diagnostic procedure and test reports
  • Discharge summaries
  • Objective findings from most recent physician examination
  • Lab test results

Access by Third Parties

Your insurance company has legal access to particular medical information in order to have the ability to insure you. A California Department of Insurance study with many insurers and managed care organizations (MCOs) reveals that the ability to access records from your insurance company through a new web-based tool, Personal Health Record will soon be available. Mostly, this is to be a tool to help consumers and doctors coordinate care, and it may prove helpful to access records from a single source. Information contained in the health record includes auto-populated data from your insurance company on hospital admissions, hospital outpatient procedures, physician visits, lab tests, and prescription drugs.

Your attorney does not have access to your medical records even if he or she states the role of legal counsel. Your lawyer can only have access to your records if you have designated he or she as your personal representative in your written request.

Sacramento Medical Malpractice Laws And Santa Rosa Medical Malpractice Laws Protect You

Even as the patient, you may be denied certain medical records, especially if they relate to mental health. However, your doctor must allow inspection of these records by a licensed physician, psychologist, psychiatrist, marriage and family therapist, or clinical social worker as you give permission.

While retrieving medical records can be a complicated process, the guidelines exist to protect you. Contact one of the experienced medical malpractice attorneys at Teal & Montgomery if you are having trouble getting access to your own records.

Free Consultations For Victims Of Medical Malpractice

We offer a free telephone, online, or in-person consultation. Our Santa Rosa and Sacramento medical malpractice attorneys listen to you, consider the facts, and give you our best advice. For the Santa Rosa office, call 707-525-1212 or for Sacramento, call 916-448-1010 or contact us online today.