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Letters about your health record: ask for it, send it, fix it

Your health record is the written account of your care: visits, tests, medicines, diagnoses. People need it when they change doctors, apply for benefits, care for a parent, or want to check what was written about them. This page has five short letters to a doctor’s office, clinic or hospital: send me a copy of my record, send a copy to someone else, something in my record is wrong, I disagree with your decision not to correct it, and I asked for my record and it has not come. Pick one, fill in the blanks, and print it, save it as a PDF or copy the text. The letter can be in English or in Spanish. There is no account and no price.

Nothing is kept. Nothing you type here is sent anywhere, and nothing is saved, not even on this device: close or reload the page and the boxes are empty. Print or download your letter before you leave. This page runs no analytics or tracking. How we handle privacy.

This tool needs JavaScript. You can write the same letter by hand: your name, address and phone number at the top, the date, the name and address of the office, the patient’s name and date of birth, one or two plain sentences that say what you are asking for, a request for an answer in writing, and your name at the bottom. Keep a copy.

Good to know

Before you send it

Look in the patient portal first. ONC says the first step is to check your provider’s online patient portal, if it has one; some of your health information may already be there.
Ask the office how it takes requests. ONC says how you make your request depends on your provider’s processes, and that there is no standard form. If the office has its own form, this letter can go with it, or stand in until you have the form.
Read it through. The page does not check what you typed. The patient’s name, the date of birth and the address of the office matter most.
Keep a copy. ONC says to make a complete copy of everything you send to your provider. Write down the day you sent it: Paper trail is a log for that, and Dates to keep holds the day an answer is due.
ONC says messages sent through a patient portal are secure, and that personal email is not, which makes it easier for someone to view or steal your personal information.
If you ask in person, ONC says you may need to show ID, like a driver’s license.
Sign the printed letter by hand above your name if you mail it. This is our own suggestion, not from a source.

Where the facts come from

The note under each letter passes on what one federal office says: ONC, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, in its guide to getting and using your health records. We read three pages of it on October 5, 2026, in English: Get It, Check It, Use It (marked last updated January 20, 2026), How to Get It (January 14, 2026) and How to Check It (April 1, 2026).
ONC says a federal rule, the HIPAA Privacy Rule, gives you the right to see and get a copy of your health record, and that health plans and most providers, including most doctors’ offices, clinics, hospitals, pharmacies, labs and nursing homes, must follow it.
ONC says: if your provider says it can’t give you access to your health record because of HIPAA, tell them that the HIPAA Privacy Rule requires them to give you access to your record.
For complaints, ONC points to the Department of Health and Human Services: filing a complaint at HHS.gov. We could not open the hhs.gov pages from our server, so nothing on this page is passed on from HHS itself.
No state’s law is stated here, because we read none. ONC says some state and other laws have shorter timelines that may apply.
Rules change; the agencies’ own pages are the ones to trust if they differ from this one.

What this page can’t do

It is not legal advice or medical advice, and no lawyer, health records specialist or patient advocate has reviewed the letters.
It cannot promise an answer, a copy, a correction or a date. A letter asks; the office decides, within the rules that bind it.
It does not know your deadline. The 30 days and the 60 days are what ONC describes under the federal rule. We did not read what the rule says about when a provider may refuse a request, or about records such as psychotherapy notes.
It does not decide who may ask for another person’s record. We read nothing on who counts as a patient’s personal representative, on a teenager’s record, or on the record of someone who has died; the office can tell you what proof it needs.
It does not send the letter. You mail it, fax it, hand it in, or upload it where the office takes messages.
It does not write in your place. There is no AI inside this tool: the sentences of each letter are a fixed text, written ahead of time with AI, and the page fills your blanks into it.
It does not translate what you type. Only the fixed sentences change with the language of the letter.
It does not cover school records, records held by the VA or the military, court or police records, or a mistake on a bill. For a bill, see Letters about a medical bill. If you need a lawyer and can’t pay, see When you need a lawyer and can’t pay.

Which words are yours, and which are the page’s

Everything in the boxes is yours and goes on the letter as you typed it.
The subject line, the greeting, the sentences of the letter, the request for an answer in writing and the closing are the page’s, the same for everyone who picks that letter.
The fixed sentences ask. They do not cite a law, and they do not threaten anyone.
Where your name, the office or the person the record goes to is still empty, the letter shows a line in square brackets so the gap is easy to see.
Nothing on the printed letter names this website.

Tools that go with this

Paper trail: a log of every call, letter and visit.
Dates to keep: deadlines and appointments on one list.
Get ready for your appointment: what to say and ask, on one page, before you go in.
My medicines: your own list, to set beside the one in your record.
Letters about a medical bill: an itemized bill, financial assistance, a payment plan.
When you’re caring for someone: for the people who keep someone else’s papers in order.
When you need a doctor and can’t pay: low-cost clinics and coverage.
All the free tools, and how to save them on your phone.

A letter, not a lawyer. General information, not legal or medical advice. If what you are carrying is too heavy today, call or text 988 (in the U.S.), or open Get help now. In an emergency, call 911.

The tool, the five letters and the wording around them were written with AI (Claude) for Scarlet Beast (our AI policy). The letters were not reviewed by a lawyer, a health records specialist or a patient advocate, and no person has yet used them with a real records office. The facts are passed on from healthit.gov pages read on October 5, 2026; U.S. only. Also in Spanish: Cartas sobre tu expediente médico. Found a mistake? Email [email protected].