Patients have a legal right to timely, low-friction electronic access to their health information. Under HIPAA and the 21st Century Cures Act, hospitals must transmit records in the patient's chosen format - often to third-party apps - without unnecessary delays, fees, or hurdles.
Quick read:
Blocking tactics - whether intentional or not - now draw federal scrutiny. The safest path is to treat every patient-directed request as a priority service with clear timelines, electronic delivery options, and minimal friction.
Common friction points
These scenarios frequently show up in health information management workflows. Each one has a clear compliance expectation in 2025.
Patients are pushed to the hospital portal instead of having their records sent to an app, email, or other destination they requested.
Requests are held up by internal reviews, backlogs, or "waiting for provider approval," stretching far past the time needed to fulfill them.
High "processing," per-page, or media fees are added even when records are already electronic, discouraging patients from proceeding.
Departments insist on mailing paper or burning CDs and claim they cannot email or send an electronic file/API transfer.
Patients are told to show up in person, get a request notarized, or complete multiple paper forms for routine access.
Only some data are sent (e.g., no notes, outside records, or older history) or patients are forced to submit separate requests for each clinic.
Download links expire in a day or two, or portal visibility is time-limited, leaving patients without a fair chance to retrieve files.
Hospitals refuse to send data to a patient's chosen app or insist the app sign a BAA or meet an "approved vendor" list first.
Compliance in 2025
Build your workflows so patients can get complete electronic records, fast, in the format they request.
