(U.S.) Expanding HIPAA Rights: Lab Test Results to Come Under the Big Tent | e-Patients.net

e-Patients

"We’re inching closer to promulgation of final regulations that will likely make all lab test results more easily accessible to patients, by making them subject to the HIPAA rules ensuring patient access. (Currently, lab test results and psychiatric notes are the two lone categories of patient data not subject to HIPAA; however “in-house” labs drawn at a health care facility or medical practice are already accessible to patients under HIPAA.) This change is significant in no small part because there was no change in the law that prompted the change in regulation — the only thing that changed was the rising voice of patients insisting on access … and a more receptive set of ears in Washington....