Under HIPAA, what are two common rights individuals have regarding their health information in group health plans?

• A. The right to access their PHI and the right to request amendments to their PHI.
• B. The right to delete PHI and the right to rename their PHI.
• C. The right to publicly share their PHI and restrict access to others.
• D. The right to alter PHI and to obtain financial statements.

Answer: (A)

Two key rights under HIPAA focus on how you can interact with your health information in a group health plan: the right to access your health information and the right to request changes to it.

Access means you can request to see or obtain a copy of the PHI the plan keeps about you, in the designated record sets the plan uses to make decisions about your care and benefits. This helps you verify what the plan has, understand how decisions are being made, and catch any mistakes that need correction.

If you find information that’s inaccurate or incomplete, you can ask for an amendment to that PHI. The plan must review your request and, if justified, update the record or provide an explanation of why it won’t amend, sometimes adding your own statement of disagreement to accompany the information.

Other actions like deleting PHI, renaming it, sharing it publicly, altering it, or obtaining financial statements are not rights granted in the same way by HIPAA, so these aren’t the protections highlighted here.