§ 5-37.3-5 - Transfer and amendment of information.
SECTION 5-37.3-5
§ 5-37.3-5 Transfer and amendment ofinformation. – (a) Upon occurrence of an action or decision of any third party, whichadversely affects a patient, and which is based in whole or in part upon thatpatient's confidential health care information (including, but not limited to,the following actions or decisions: (1) denial of an application for aninsurance policy; (2) issuance of an insurance policy with other than standardand uniform restrictions; (3) rejection in whole or in part of any claim forinsurance benefits; (4) denial of an employment application or termination ofemployment when that denial or termination is for health reasons) and upon thewritten request of that patient or his or her authorized representative (or, ifthat patient is deceased, then his or her heir or beneficiary or theirauthorized representative, or his or her estate), a third party shall transfercopies of all of that patient's confidential health care information in itspossession to a physician designated in that written request. Prior to makingthis transfer, a third party may require payment of its actual cost ofretrieval, duplication, and forwarding of that information.
(b) A physician receiving confidential health careinformation pursuant to subsection (a) of this section may review, interpret,and disclose any or all of that information to the person at whose request thatinformation was transferred, as that physician deems in his or her professionaljudgment to be in the best interests of the patient to whom that informationrelates.
(c) After reviewing his or her confidential health careinformation pursuant to this section, a patient or his or her authorizedrepresentative may request the third party to amend or expunge any part he orshe believes is in error, or request the addition of any recent relevantinformation. Upon receiving such a request, the third party shall notify thehealth care provider who initially forwarded that information to the thirdparty, and when that health care provider concurs with that request, the thirdparty shall return that information to that health care provider formodification. Prior to making that return, a third party may require payment ofits actual cost of notice, duplication, and return of that information. Exceptupon court order, the third party shall not itself modify that information. Apatient, after requesting and reviewing his or her confidential health careinformation, has the right, in any case, to place into the file, at his or herown cost, a statement of reasonable length of his or her view as to thecorrectness or relevance of existing information or as to the addition of newinformation. That statement or copies of the statement shall at all timesaccompany that part of the information in contention.
(d) A person or his or her authorized representative has theright, when there is an unreasonable refusal to change the records as providedin this section, to apply to the district court to amend or expunge any part ofhis or her confidential health care information in a third party's possessionwhich he or she believes to be erroneous.