Most people put their full trust in their doctors and medical professionals without ever learning what healthcare rights they actually have as a patient. The medical system is complicated in the best of circumstances, and much harder to navigate during a stressful time when someone in the family is sick.
Building a trusted relationship with your providers matters. So does knowing, up front, what you are entitled to. This guide explains HIPAA patient rights in plain language, what counts as protected health information, and what your options are when your healthcare rights have been violated in Georgia.
What Is HIPAA?
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) was signed into federal law in 1996 and remains in effect today. Its stated goals are to simplify the healthcare industry, reduce waste, prevent fraud, and let people keep health coverage when they change or lose a job. HIPAA contains a long list of regulations, but a handful of violations account for most complaints.
The mishandling of Protected Health Information (PHI) is the most common type of HIPAA violation. Under federal law, PHI is any information about your health status, the care you receive, or payment for that care that can be linked to you as an individual.
What Counts as Protected Health Information?
PHI includes diagnoses, treatment notes, test results, prescription history, and billing records. Even the basics you hand over at the front desk — your birth date, gender, ethnicity, address, and emergency contact — are protected.
The word that matters is identifiable. If every identifier is stripped from a data set, it stops being PHI.
Your Rights Under HIPAA
When your information is protected as PHI, healthcare workers must handle it a specific way. These are the patient rights most people never think to ask about.
The Right to See and Copy Your Records
You can request a copy of your medical records and health information, and providers are generally required to give you access within 30 days. They may charge a reasonable, cost-based fee for copies.
The Right to Correct Errors
If something in your file is wrong — a medication you never took, a diagnosis that was later ruled out — you can request an amendment. If the provider denies the request, you can submit a written statement of disagreement that has to be kept with your record.
The Right to Know Who Has Seen Your Information
You can ask for an accounting of disclosures: who accessed your health information, how it was used, and who it was shared with.
The Right to Confidentiality
Healthcare workers cannot distribute PHI through personal channels such as text messaging, personal email, or social media. Impermissible disclosure of PHI is a HIPAA violation. Providers must also dispose of records properly, encrypt data to prevent unauthorized access, and protect the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of the information — meaning your records stay private, stay accurate, and stay available to the clinicians treating you.
The Right to Informed Consent
Informed consent is your right to receive enough information — risks, benefits, and alternatives — to make a genuine decision about your own treatment.
What Counts as a HIPAA Violation?
Common violations include:
- Talking about a patient’s condition where unauthorized people can hear, or posting patient details on social media.
- Losing a laptop, phone, or drive that holds unencrypted records, or having one stolen.
- Disposing of records in an ordinary trash can instead of shredding or securely destroying them.
- Staff accessing the records of patients they are not treating.
- Refusing a patient access to their own records.
- Failing to notify patients after a breach, generally within 60 days of discovery.
Can You Sue for a HIPAA Violation in Georgia?
Not under HIPAA itself. HIPAA has no private right of action, which means you cannot sue a provider simply for violating it. Enforcement runs through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights (OCR), which investigates complaints and can fine providers.
That does not leave you without options. The conduct behind the violation — a missed diagnosis, a medication error, records released in a way that caused you real harm, or negligence in your care — can support a claim under Georgia law. In practice, medical malpractice and negligence claims are the path to compensation. An attorney can tell you which of your rights have been violated and what remedy fits.
What to Do If You Think Your Healthcare Rights Were Violated
- Request your records in writing. Keep a dated copy of the request and note what you receive back.
- Write down a timeline. Dates, names, what was said, and who you spoke with. Notes made at the time carry far more weight than a recollection assembled months later.
- Ask for the Notice of Privacy Practices. It states how the practice is allowed to use your information, so you can compare that against what actually happened.
- File a complaint with OCR. Federal complaints are generally due within 180 days of the incident.
- Talk to an attorney before deadlines pass. Georgia’s statute of limitations for most injury claims is two years, and a HIPAA complaint runs on its own clock.
Talk to a Georgia Medical Malpractice Attorney
Lamar Law Office, LLC is committed to helping people recover the compensation they deserve after their healthcare rights have been violated. If you have questions about HIPAA, your rights under Georgia law, or what a provider did with your records, our medical malpractice team will walk you through your options in plain language.
Call (678) 819-5200 for a free, no-pressure consultation, or contact us online. You can also read about results we have recovered for clients and browse our Georgia legal resources.