Get my records
Choose the relevant dates and categories, ask for a format you can use, and keep the response. This page focuses on a copy for you; legal exceptions and state rules can matter.
Use the record holder’s access process. Identify the existing records you need and your preferred format. Some internal quality, peer-review, or investigation files are outside the patient-access record set. Separately kept psychotherapy notes have an exclusion; ordinary clinical progress notes are not excluded simply because the care was for mental health.
Supporting guidance: HHS: which records you can request ↗45 CFR 164.524: access to records ↗
Ask to correct inaccurate or incomplete information. Identify the entry and explain the requested change. This is a separate process; an accepted amendment is generally added or linked, rather than erasing the original.
Supporting guidance: 45 CFR 164.526: amendment requests ↗
Check response periods, format, fees, and denial or disagreement rights →
These HIPAA rules apply to covered record holders and requests within the rule’s scope. They do not establish a personal lawsuit or complaint deadline.
Choose relevant categories
Not every item exists or is available through the same process. A short visit summary may contain less than the underlying record. Keep your own grievance correspondence separately; access to internal grievance or incident files is not guaranteed.
Supporting guidance: HHS: which records you can request ↗
Ulekai · https://ulekai.com/records
Outline updated September 19, 2026
Complete outside Ulekai
Adapt this for your own copy and send it through the record holder’s official process. Ulekai does not collect, send, or save the completed request.
Privacy when copying or printing →
If you are requesting records for someone else, ask the record holder which authority and identification it needs.
RECORDS-REQUEST OUTLINE To: [Records department or practice] I request a copy for myself of my [dental / medical / facility] records for [date range]. Please include these relevant existing records: [list the categories you need]. My preferred format is [electronic / paper, with format details if useful]. For images, please provide usable copies of the existing images. If the requested format cannot be produced, please contact me to agree on an alternative. For electronically maintained records requested electronically, please discuss a readable electronic alternative. Please provide advance notice and an explanation of any copying fee. If an item is withheld, please identify it, explain the reason in writing, and describe any available review or complaint process. Please provide the accessible portions. Patient identification and delivery details: [Complete only through the record holder's official process]
When records arrive
An omission from your copy does not by itself prove that an item never existed.
Note what was requested, received, unreadable, duplicated, or missing.
Keep the files as received and use separate working copies.
Bring relevant findings, results, and plans to your next clinical conversation or second opinion.
Request clarification of omissions or unreadable files. Use the amendment process for an inaccurate or incomplete entry.
HIPAA’s amendment process allows a statement of disagreement after a denial. Read the written decision and instructions rather than assuming the original entry will be deleted.
Supporting guidance: 45 CFR 164.526: amendment requests ↗
Explains HIPAA’s designated record set, clinical notes, and the limits on access to separate psychotherapy notes and some internal files.
Source checked: September 30, 2026
Federal access rule: response periods, formats, permitted fees, and denials. Applies within HIPAA’s scope.
Source checked: September 30, 2026
Federal amendment process, response periods, denial grounds, and statements of disagreement.
Source checked: September 30, 2026
Patient guidance on copies, fees, unpaid treatment bills, and corrections. Read its court-decision qualification when considering other kinds of requests.
Source checked: September 30, 2026
Content and sources checked September 30, 2026. This is patient-access guidance, not a determination of the rules for a particular record holder or a professional legal review.