Accessing Your Medical Records

Medical records (sometimes called a health record) are kept locally at each Fresenius Kidney Care facility. If you would like to obtain your records, please submit your request directly to the facility where you received services. You may use our Find a Fresenius Dialysis Center tool to locate their contact information.

If you are directing the facility to produce records to a third party (such as a family member or law firm) for non-treatment purposes, please complete our Authorization for Release of Protected Health Information. If you prefer to use a different form of written authorization, please ensure it complies with HIPAA and applicable state requirements.

If your family member is still living and has capacity to make his or her own medical decisions, he or she may authorize the facility to release the medical record to you. Please provide an Authorization for Release of Protected Health Information or another written request that complies with HIPAA and applicable state requirements. The authorization must be signed by the person being treated.

Your family member's “personal representative” also may direct the facility to release the record to the representative or to another person. The requirements for personal representatives vary based on state law. Accordingly, it is important to understand who may act as a personal representative, and when that power becomes valid.

States consider the Health Care Power of Attorney (POA), Health Care Proxy or court-appointed guardian to be the personal representative. However, those typically do not become effective until one or more physicians determine the person being treated no longer has capacity to make his or her own medical decisions. If you submit a written request for disclosure of medical records, please attach a copy of the Health Care POA, Health Care Proxy or Guardianship as well as documentation that the person being treated has been declared incapacitated.

Please understand that we respect privacy even after death. The legal requirements for accessing a deceased person's medical record depends on who constitutes the “personal representative,” which varies from state to state.

The Health Care POA or Health Care Proxy typically expires upon the person's death. Instead, most states consider the court-appointed estate executor or administrator to be the personal representative of a deceased person. Often the local probate court will issue “Letters of Administration,” “Letters of Authority,” or “Order Appointing Fiduciary” to document the appointment, even if the estate is not otherwise being probated.

Some states also permit the deceased person's spouse, adult child or other next of kin to obtain medical records pursuant to verification that no other person has been appointed as executor or administrator.

In order to facilitate your request for a deceased person's medical record, please provide the Authorization for Release of Protected Health Information along with documentation that supports your appointment as the personal representative.

HIPAA allows Fresenius Kidney Care to disclose medical information to other providers for treatment purposes, such as to a physician, hospital, or other dialysis facility to coordinate care.

Please encourage the health care provider to contact the facility directly so they can make appropriate arrangements. If you would rather deliver your medical record directly to the other provider, please submit a written request as described above.

Yes. For example, the facility may use its professional judgment to determine whether it is in the person's best interest to disclose certain medical information to a care partner or others directly involved in the person's care. Please read our FMCNA Notice of Privacy Practices for more information.