Your Medical Record Rights In Ohio

In Ohio you have the right to:
1.  See and get a copy of your medical record within 30 days of your request to the health care provider.

2.  Your health care provider may charge you for copying your record. The provider can also charge for the cost of postage and delivery.

3.  You have the right to amend your medical record to make it more accurate or complete.

4.  If your right to see, get a copy of or to amend your medical record is violated then you may file a complaint with the Office of Civil Rights, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.  You also can file a complaint with the state agency that regulates the health care provider.

5.  You may bring a lawsuit in Ohio against your health care provider if they fail to provide you with your medical records as requested.

6.  Under Ohio law your health care provider owns the actual medical record.

7.  A parent may see, get a copy of or amend their childs medical record if the child is under 18 yrs. of age.  If a health care provider reasonably believes that a parent is abusing, or neglecting a child the provider does not have to give the parent access to the child's record.

8.  Under Ohio law, you do not have the right to get the medical records of a deceased person unless you are the administrator or executor of the person's estate.

9.  There is no rule in Ohio as to how long medical doctors or hospitals must keep your medical records.  Although some medical practitioners must keep records for a certain period of time such as: chiropractor's must keep treatment records for 5 years after a patient ends his care.

10.  Most health care providers (doctors and hospitals) must follow HIPPA Privacy Rules and state law in providing your medical records.  Most nursing homes must follow HIPPA rules along with other specific rules that apply only to nursing homes.

11.  In Ohio, an independent tort exists (meaning an individual can sue) for the unauthorized, unprivileged disclosure to a third party of nonpublic medical information that a physician or hospital has learned within a physician-patient relationship." Biddle v. Warren Gen. Hosp. (1999), 86 Ohio.St.3d 395, paragraph one of the syllabus and Garland v Seven Seventeen Credit Union, Inc., 184 Ohio App.3d 339 (2009).