Who owns your Medical Records?

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Last month, I had to select a new GP closer to my residence.
So I visited him and signed the paperwork for my medical records to be transferred from the practice that I attended for the past 5 years or so.
To my surprise, I received an invoice with the following points attached:

1. We refer to your request for a copy of the patient record held in relation to you at the Centre to be sent to your new GP.
2. Our Company owns the patient records.
3. We are prepared to meet your request upon receipt of payment of the attached Tax lnvoice which is our fee in relation to searching for, copying and postage of the patient record.
4. Please note that in agreeing to your request we are not transferring ownership of the record to you. The copy of the patient record is provided for the purposes set out in your request for access only.
5. Payment by you of our Tax lnvoice is accepted by you and your new GP of the conditions provision of the patient record copy as set out in this letter.
6. Please send a cheque/money order or the completed remittance advice with credit card details section completed to the Records Department at the address on the invoice.

While I have no problem with them requesting I pay for a service - especially given that my records are quite voluminous - it astounds me that a Medical Centre can claim ownership of my personal health records. I have since been digging a little into the matter and found references to "Copyright". Apparently, legal eagles can argue that a medical diagnosis, a result of a blood or urine test, even an Xray or MRI image of my innards, are the result of a creative process and therefore subject to copyright ownership.

Who owns a patient's medical record?
Although the original medical record IS the property of the physician's office who created it (as stated above), the patient is allowed to "inspect, review and receive a copy of his or her own medical records and billing records" held by health plans and healthcare providers covered by the HIPAA Privacy Rule. Jan 14, 2015

Who, with a modicum of common sense, would have thought of that?

 

[SirRumpole]

I was thinking about this matter the other day, re transferring to other doctors.

There should be discriminations between matters of "fact" ie results of tests which should be the same no matter who does them, and matters of opinion, like doctor's diagnoses which may vary from doctor to doctor.

The patients should own the facts, the doctors can own their own intellectual property relating to their interpretation of the facts.

 

[McLovin]

While I have no problem with them requesting I pay for a service - especially given that my records are quite voluminous - it astounds me that a Medical Centre can claim ownership of my personal health records. I have since been digging a little into the matter and found references to "Copyright". Apparently, legal eagles can argue that a medical diagnosis, a result of a blood or urine test, even an Xray or MRI image of my innards, are the result of a creative process and therefore subject to copyright ownership.

I think it would be much harder to prove copyright if push came to shove for things like MRI/X-Rays than it would from consultation notes. There is of course nothing preventing them from asserting they own those things.

The ATO has asked the same question...

http://law.ato.gov.au/atolaw/view.htm?docid="LIT/ICD/VID911/2005/00001"

In relation to each of the sample sale of practice agreements, the Court considered the following preliminary questions:

(i)
Did copyright subsist in the patient records of the practices acquired by the Trustee?



With limited exceptions, there was no copyright existing in the majority of the patient records in evidence. However this does not imply that copyright can never subsist in medical or dental records.

 

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There is of course nothing preventing them from asserting they own those things.

... and assert they do: it's been indeed a Primary Medical Centre that I went to in the past. They are open from 7am to 10pm, even on weekends, which is really convenient for a desk jockey "working" the same hours as other businesses incl GPs.

 

[Newt]

In the not too distant future you should start to get more and more of your records sent to your personal "eHealth record". Most EHR systems around the world have had a long rocky road to delivering expected benefits and cost savings. Arguably in Aus, we have suffered through many years of poorly planned and invested resources to create overly complex unusable informatics systems.
The medical sector lives in hopes we'll finally enjoy what countries like Denmark have enjoyed for many years, along with online access to your files pixel.
Many medicos worry about their work and diagnoses become a "commodity", challenges ensuring online security for such private material, and who should have access and when.

Let's pray the folks that developed MyGov don't have anything to do with it all though. Shudder......

 

[pixel]

Let's pray the folks that developed MyGov don't have anything to do with it all though. Shudder.

... nor the folks that built the Census online system, and many similar Government White Elephants.
As to security and privacy: I'm too much an IT man myself to trust in the safety and privacy of anything that's connected to the Interwebz. Which is why I won't subscribe to eHealth either.

Here in Oz, an additional consideration comes into play: Once eHealth is fully established with everyone's DNA profile and pre-existing health concerns on file, the odds become very short for the Insurance Industry lobbying the Government to be granted access - and "tailor the best possible insurance policy for clients".