There are many reasons that you may need to get copies of your medical records from your physician or healthcare provider.

Like a lot of other records that require data protection, you cannot just walk into your physician’s office and ask for a photocopy. The Federal Privacy Act 1974 regulates the handling of health care information by federal agencies. It means that you have a right to access medical records in the custody of a federal agency. You also have the right to access records held by doctors, hospitals, clinics, health care plans and other covered entities under regulations issued by the department of Health and Human Services, within 30 days.

A medical record is a general term and parts of your medical history could be held in different places. Each record has to be requested individually from the provider of each service.

You need to think ahead when requesting records and call the hospital or medical practice first to see if there is someone special you need to send your request to. Many hospitals have a department that looks after the archived records. A letter addressed just to the hospital could be passed around the internal postal system for days and may not find its way to the right place.

When requesting your records be as precise as you can. Give your full name and date of birth, your social security number and your patient number, if you know it. You then need to state exactly what medical records you require as there is no point in paying for records you do not need. Charges for copies of records have to be kept to a minimum and should not exceed 75cents per page. Make sure your instructions are clear.

If you need to get medical records(http://www.medretrieve.net) because you are using an attorney to make a claim for you, the attorney will probably use a medical records retrieval company, in which case you will be asked to provide written consent for a third party to access your records. The same would apply to a life insurance company.