TRICARE, Your Military Health Plan

In This Section:

• Release of Medical Records and Personal Health Information
• HIPAA and Privacy
• Medical Records at Military Treatment Facilities

Medical Records at Military Treatment Facilities

The Department of Defense has medical records safeguards in place at all military treatment facilities to ensure the safety and confidentiality of your records. There is no better place than your local military treatment facility for the protection of your private health care information.

Here are some of the safeguards in place. Military treatment facilities must:

• Maintain 95% availability of outpatient records at all times
• Educate staff about their responsibility of records
• Establish a tracking and reporting system to deliver outpatient records to clinics for scheduled and walk-in appointments
• Do periodic records audits
• Have procedures in place to ensure any loose paperwork has the necessary beneficiary information to be filed in a patient's outpatient record
• Have a designated privacy officer in place to ensure health care information remains private, but available to patients, their provider and any other person designated in writing by the patient

You may request a copy of your medical record (See Release of Records and Personal Health Information), but may not hand-carry your outpatient records. At the end of each appointment, your record is returned to the outpatient records storage section at the military treatment facility where your care was received.

Will my medical record ever be archived?

Last Modified:June 15, 2012