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Email template to request your medical records from a doctor's office

You are switching doctors, applying for life insurance, seeing a specialist who wants your history, or just want a copy of your own file. Under the federal privacy law known as HIPAA, you have a right to a copy of your medical records, and the office generally has 30 days to provide them, with one 30-day extension if they tell you why. They can charge a reasonable cost-based fee for copying, but not a fee for searching or retrieving. Many offices have a form; an email asking for it, or stating your request plainly, starts the clock and leaves a record of the date you asked.

Before you send

  • Your full legal name as the office has it, your date of birth, and roughly when you were a patient there. If your name has changed, give both.
  • Which records you want. "My complete record" is fine, but if you only need the last two years, or just lab results and imaging reports, say so; it is faster and cheaper.
  • The format: electronic (a PDF by secure email or through the patient portal) or paper. You can ask for electronic if the office keeps records electronically.
  • Where the records should go: to you, or directly to another doctor. If to another doctor, have that office's name, fax, and address.
  • A photo ID ready, since most offices will ask you to verify your identity before releasing anything.
Subject Request for a copy of my medical records, [your full name], DOB [date of birth] 
Hi [practice name or records department],

I'm a [current / former] patient of [doctor's name], and I'd like a copy of my medical records. My name is [full legal name], date of birth [date of birth], and I was seen at your office from about [year] to [year].

Please send [my complete record / the following: office visit notes, lab results, and imaging reports from date to date]. I'd like them in [electronic form as a PDF, through the patient portal or secure email / paper form mailed to my address below]. [If the records should go to another provider: Please send them directly to doctor's name at practice name, fax number, address.]

If you need me to complete a release form or show ID, please send the form or let me know what you need and I'll return it right away. I understand there may be a copying fee; please let me know the amount before you send.

My contact details are below. Thank you for your help.

[Your name]
[Your mailing address]
[Your phone number]

Everything in brackets is yours to fill in. Keep the rest as it is or change the tone to match how you write.

After you send

  • Most offices reply within a few days with a release form to sign. Return it the same day; the 30-day window is measured from when they have a complete request.
  • If you hear nothing after two weeks, call once and then send a short follow-up email referencing the date of your first request.
  • A fee well above a few dollars per page, or a fee for "retrieval," is out of line. Ask them to itemize it and to quote the flat fee for an electronic copy.
  • If 30 days pass with no records and no written explanation, you can file a complaint with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights. Mention that you know this only if the office is unresponsive.

Or don't send it yourself

Forward the job to myagent@standinfor.me and let StandIn run the whole thread.

StandIn is an email assistant that handles conversations with businesses for you. You write it one email saying what you need. It writes to the business, waits for the answer, follows up when they go quiet, pushes back on the number when it should, and brings the results back to your inbox for you to decide. You don't need to install an app or sign up. The first email you send is already the start of the task.

Hand this to StandIn opens an email to myagent@standinfor.me with the job already written out

To myagent@standinfor.me Subject Get a copy of my medical records 
Hi StandIn,

Please request a copy of my medical records from a doctor's office and follow it through until I have them.

The office: [practice name, doctor's name, phone or email if you have it].
My details: [full legal name, date of birth, years I was a patient].
What I want: [complete record / specific items and date range].
Format: [electronic PDF / paper by mail].
Send to: [me at my address / another provider with their name, fax, address].

Ask for their release form, tell me what I need to sign or show, chase them if they go quiet, and get any fee quoted before they send anything.

Thanks,
[Your name]

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