Understanding Your Health Record
- Purpose of this Notice
- Who will Follow this Notice
- BCM's Commitment
- Understanding your Health Record
- How we may Use and Disclose Information about You
- When Your Authorization is Required
- Special Protections for Alcohol and Drug Abuse Information
- Your Rights
- Changes to this Notice
- For More Information, Requests Related to Your Rights, or to Report a Problem
- Forms
Each time you visit a BCM clinic, hospital, physician or affiliated health care provider, a record of your visit is made. Typically, this record contains your symptoms, examination and test results, diagnoses, treatment, and a plan for care or treatment. This information, often referred to as your health or medical record, serves as a:
- basis for planning your care, treatment and any follow up care you may need;
- means of communication among the many health professionals who contribute to your care;
- legal document describing the care you received;
- means by which you or a third-party payer (for example, insurance carriers, Medicare, Medicaid) can verify that services billed were actually provided;
- tool in educating heath professionals;
- source of information for medical research;
- source of information for public health officials charged with improving the health of the nation;
- source of information for facility planning and marketing; and
- tool which can be used to assess and continually improve the care rendered and the results achieved.
Understanding what is in your record and how your health information is used helps you to:
- ensure its accuracy;
- better understand who, what, when, where and why others may access your health information; and
- make more informed decisions when authorizing disclosure to others.