§ 5-37.3-5. Transfer and amendment of information.
(a) Upon occurrence of an action or decision of any third party that adversely affects
a patient and that is based in whole or in part upon that patient's confidential healthcare
information (including, but not limited to, the following actions or decisions: (1)
Denial of an application for an insurance policy; (2) Issuance of an insurance policy
with other than standard and uniform restrictions; (3) Rejection, in whole or in part,
of any claim for insurance benefits; (4) Denial of an employment application or termination
of employment when that denial or termination is for health reasons) and upon the
written request of that patient or his or her authorized representative (or, if that
patient is deceased, then his or her heir or beneficiary or their authorized representative,
or his or her estate), a third party shall transfer copies of all of that patient's
confidential healthcare information in its possession to a physician designated in
that written request. Prior to making this transfer, a third party may require payment
of its actual cost of retrieval, duplication, and forwarding of that information.
(b) A physician receiving confidential healthcare information pursuant to subsection (a)
may review, interpret, and disclose any or all of that information to the person at
whose request that information was transferred, as that physician deems in his or
her professional judgment to be in the best interests of the patient to whom that
information relates.
(c) After reviewing his or her confidential healthcare information pursuant to this section,
a patient or his or her authorized representative may request the third party to amend
or expunge any part he or she believes is in error, or request the addition of any
recent relevant information. Upon receiving such a request, the third party shall
notify the healthcare provider who initially forwarded that information to the third
party, and when that healthcare provider concurs with that request, the third party
shall return that information to that healthcare provider for modification. Prior
to making that return, a third party may require payment of its actual cost of notice,
duplication, and return of that information. Except upon court order, the third party
shall not itself modify that information. A patient, after requesting and reviewing
his or her confidential healthcare information, has the right, in any case, to place
into the file, at his or her own cost, a statement of reasonable length of his or
her view as to the correctness or relevance of existing information or as to the addition
of new information. That statement or copies of the statement shall at all times accompany
that part of the information in contention.
(d) A person or his or her authorized representative has the right, when there is an unreasonable
refusal to change the records as provided in this section, to apply to the district
court to amend or expunge any part of his or her confidential healthcare information
in a third party's possession that he or she believes to be erroneous.