Health FAQs

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This part of the Privacy Commissioner's website provides answers to questions frequently asked of the Office of the Privacy Commissioner. If you have a question you would like us to answer please send it to privacy@privacy.gov.au.

Private Health Sector: Access to health information

1. Who owns my medical records? Answer
2. Can I get access to my medical records? Answer
3. How should a request for access to medical records be made? Answer
4. Is a health service provider required to give a representative of an individual access to that individual's medical records? Answer
5. How much time does an organisation have to meet a request for access to an individual's medical record? Answer
6. Can a health service provider refuse to give a patient access to their medical record on the basis that it would pose a threat to someone's life or health? Answer
7. If you are a health service provider and a patient seeks access to their record, which includes reports or letters written by other health professionals (such as specialists), do you have to give the patient access to these documents as well as the notes you have created yourself? Answer
8. Is a document in a patient's record accessible by them, if it has been written by health professional from outside your organisation and it includes a statement that it was provided to you 'in confidence'? Answer
9. Must a health service provider give an individual access to their medical records if it contains information collected before 21 December 2001? Answer

Private Health Sector: Charging for access to health information

1. Can an organisation charge an individual a fee for providing access to the individual's medical records and how much should that fee be? Answer
2. I think my doctor is charging me too much to give me access to my medical records. What can I do? Answer
3. Can my health service provider waive or discount the cost of providing access if I can't afford it? Answer

Private Health Sector: Correction of health information

1. What is a health service provider required to do when an individual asks for his or her medical records to be corrected? Answer

Private Health Sector: Handling of Personal Health Information

1. What should a health service provider tell an individual when it collects health information from an individual? Answer
2. What privacy concerns should health service providers be aware of when providing health services to individuals in places such as pharmacies or waiting rooms? Answer
3. If I am injured and unconscious, can my doctor share my health information with my loved ones? Answer
4. Does my doctor always need my consent to share my health information with another health service provider for my treatment? Answer
5. If an individual gives consent to medical treatment does this automatically imply consent to further use of their health information by the treating health service provider? Answer
6. Can a health service provider, like a private hospital, disclose a patient's personal information to chaplaincy, pastoral care, and similar services? Answer
7. Can my health information, when held by a private sector organisation, be used without my consent for research, the collection and analysis of statistics or for health service management? Answer
8. Can a private hospital use or disclose my health information for its own business or management purposes without my consent? Answer
9. Can a health service provider disclose personal health information it has collected to an accreditation agency during health service accreditation processes? Answer
10. What should an organisation do with the health information it no longer uses? Answer
11. Which privacy issues need to be considered when the business circumstances of a health service provider change? Answer
12. Should a health service provider retain health information about an individual who has died? Answer

Private Health Sector: Use of the Medicare number

1. Are there restrictions on how the Medicare number can be handled by health service providers? Answer
2. Can private sector health service providers use the Medicare number (or other Commonwealth government-assigned identifiers, such as the DVA number) for their own purposes, including for managing their clients' health records? Answer

Private Health Sector: Other

1. Does an individual always have to give their name when seeking a service from a health service provider? Answer
2. Are counselling services offered by charitable and welfare organisations subject to the new private sector provisions of the Privacy Act 1988? Answer
3. How does a health service provider proceed when they have privacy obligations under the Commonwealth Privacy Act 1988, as well as under State or Territory privacy law and/or their profession's ethical code of practice? Answer
4. What is the relationship between a health service provider's professional obligations of confidentiality and their obligations under the Privacy Act 1988? Answer
5. Who are the Guidelines on Privacy in the Private Health Sector for? Answer

Commonwealth and ACT Government Agencies

1. Can my personal information, when held by a Commonwealth government agency, be used without my consent for medical research purposes? Answer

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