Patient’s Rights to Release of Electronic Health Records
It is my understanding that all medical providers are required to post each patient’s medical services, test results, etc. on a electronic web site as part of Affordable Care Act. As of 2015, my Dermatologist advised me of this when they provided their website and told me how to access my medical records. My regular primary physician has failed to provide me with any documentation and/or notification of how I go about obtaining my records. I was recently advised I had to use a Physical Therapy provider to conduct a Functional Capacity Evaluation in order to determine what, if any, physical limitations (stand, sit, bend, squat, etc.) for any working environment as my Primary doctor wouldn’t provide those anymore. I was able to pull a report within 7 days by the PT but it only had my name, DOB, the provider name and date of service. The actual report discussing what if any limitations I have were in a zipped file so I don’t have access.
Where is the information pertaining these guidelines that providers now are required to observe and who or where are the guidelines to file a complaint if provider not compliant? I can’t find them anywhere on the guides (gov., your site, free other webs, etc.)
Answer
Rules pertaining to electronic health records were established in the PPACA in sec. 3003.
That being said it does stuff like amends other laws and calls for HHS to clarify how things work down the road. More information can be found at healthinfolaw.org. We don't have an exact answer to your very detailed question, however we will continue to research and will leave this here so other people can contribute to the answer.
Sec. 3003. Improvements to the physician feedback program. Expands Medicare’s physician resource use feedback program to provide for development of individualized reports by 2012. Reports will compare the per capita utilization of physicians (or groups of physicians) to other physicians who see similar patients. Reports will be risk-adjusted and standardized to take into account local health care costs.