Health Information Privacy
Information about your health and healthcare is perhaps the most sensitive and personal kind of information collected. In most states, your medical records are less protected than your credit records and your video rental records. Fortunately, California is an exception. Our state laws give us many rights to limit those who see our medical records. We also have state laws that give us the right to view our medical records and to ask to have them corrected. Starting in April 2003, new federal regulations added some further rights. Importantly, most of our doctors, HMOs, pharmacists, and other healthcare providers now have to give us a Notice of Privacy Rights. The Notice should describe the provider's practices and your rights. It should tell you how to contact the right person with a question or complaint about your health information privacy.
The information here is intended to help you understand and exercise your rights.
(Consumer Information Sheet 7)
- English (PDF)
- Chinese (PDF)
- Korean (PDF)
- Spanish (PDF)
- Vietnamese (PDF)
Health Privacy, California Health Care Foundation
Health Privacy Project, Georgetown University
HIPAA Basics: Medical Privacy, Privacy Rights Clearinghouse
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA), Standards for Privacy of Individually Identifiable Health Information (45 CFR Parts 160 and 164), Office for Civil Rights, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
