Make sure you own your patients' medical records

Contract Language. By Steven M. Harris, AMNews contributor. Nov. 4, 2002.

CONTRACT LANGUAGE

A column examining the ins and outs of contract issues

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With all the preparation for Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act privacy regulations, there's been a lot of focus on medical records. While you check to ensure your records are HIPAA-compliant, you should also take the time to check on what your contracts have to say about who ultimately owns your patients' medical records.

While content requirements and retention times for medical records can be found in the HIPAA regulations, the accreditation standards issued by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, and state statutes and regulations, these key sources do not give physicians specific guidelines on how to retain ownership of their medical records.

This column will provide you with sample contract provisions to assist you in retaining the ownership of your patients' medical records so that you will not have to track them down once you have ended your professional relationship with your partners or other health care professionals.

The general rule is that medical records are the property of the physician, and that the patient may have access to their medical records upon request. Courts have held that while patients have the right to access their medical records, medical records become property belonging to the treating physician or hospital where the services were rendered.

The following are sample contract provisions that address retention and access issues with respect to medical record ownership by the physician who owns and operates the corporate entity which may employ associate physicians or independent contractors: [...]