Kansas law guarantees patients access to their medical records
HIPAA Weekly Advisor, July 12, 2004
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Under House Bill 2813, which passed last week, the state of Kansas can now ask a district court to appoint a custodian over a healthcare provider's patient records, reports The Kansas City Star. This gives patients more access to their medical records and adds an extra layer of protection to patient information.
The state can ask for a medical record custodian if one of the following occurs:
- Provider abandons the records or the practice
- Provider's license is suspended, revoked, or canceled
- Provider dissolves the business entity
- Provider is unable to or refuses patients access to their records
- Provider dies and the patients cannot access their records
"The information contained within those records belongs to the patients," Lawrence Buening, executive director of the Kansas Board of Healing Arts, told The Star. "Our only concern right now is to protect the public by making sure they are able to access their records and maintain the continuity of their care."
Any custodian who legally takes possession of a medical record must agree to maintain the confidentiality of that record. Once the custodian takes exclusive possession, he or she must provide copies of the records in question to the patient.
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