HIPAA regulations provide patients with six principal rights:

1. Right to request additional restrictions on use or disclosure of PHI
2. Right for alternative communication methods
3. Right to request amendment of PHI
4. Right to receive an accounting of PHI disclosures
5. Right to have access to and copy own records
6. Right to file a complaint

We will discuss each of these rights in turn below. We have created, and you will find in the forms, a series of logs which will allow you to keep a record of patient requests under each of these rights and your response. Many of these rights do not require that you grant the request, but you need to track your response. You may, at some point, need to audit how you have handled the requests. Filling in the logs will help protect you in the event of a patient complaint. In general, we recommend you require all requests be made in writing on our Patient Request Form, which we also provided, and, where appropriate, the reason. This should help your decision making. In addition, the form will allow you to record your response, which in any case, must be transmitted to the patient – generally, in writing.

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