<div><span style="font-weight: 400;">The attorney of one of our patients has requested patient records, does the attorney first have to sign a Business Associate Agreement for our office?</span></div>

It is common for patients to hire attorneys, especially in a Personal Injury type situation, though there are other circumstances where this may occur as well.

If your patient has hired an attorney on his/her behalf and as a result, the attorney has requested pertinent patient records from your practice, this attorney would not be a business associate to you, but rather is working for the patient and with the patient’s permission. In this case, you would typically receive a Request for Healthcare Records that has been signed and dated by the patient, which authorizes the release of the records to the attorney. However, if the attorney has been hired by your office for some patient related scenario and needs to review patient records in order to do his/her job, this attorney would indeed be a business associate to your practice and therefore, the appropriate Business Associate Agreement should be signed and on file.