Know Your Patient Rights And Advocate For Your Health

Empowering yourself with knowledge about your healthcare rights is crucial as a patient. Many individuals may feel powerless due to a lack of awareness. By understanding your rights, you can actively advocate for your needs and ensure they are met throughout your healthcare journey. This resource equips you with the necessary information to navigate the healthcare system confidently, fostering better health outcomes and overall well-being.

What Are My Rights As A Patient?

Understanding your rights as a patient ensures you receive respectful, informed care tailored to your needs and preferences. As a patient, you have the right to:

• Respectful, considerate care and privacy.
• Having family members attend your appointments with you.
• Receive easy-to-understand information about any treatment or procedure.
• Get an appointment as needed, with specified wait-time limits (especially for specialist visits).
• Know the cost and coverage of a service. This includes an explanation of your bill regardless of how you pay.
• Know why your health plan might deny a service or treatment.
• Request continuity of care if your physician or medical provider transitions from your health plan.
• Give your consent before starting any type of treatment.
• Change provider(s) or get a second doctor’s opinion.
• Get treated for certain mental health conditions.

What Happens If Your Rights Are Violated?

If your rights are violated, it’s important to know your options for addressing grievances and seeking resolution effectively. Here are some rights you have as a patient:

• Speak to the healthcare staff dealing with your treatment or care.
• Designate someone you trust to raise concerns on your behalf.
• Employ a patient advocate for support.

You also have a right to file a grievance with the health facility. Most likely, it will be the Public Relations/Patient Advocate Department or office manager, etc. at your provider, hospital, or other healthcare provider. Most healthcare providers and organizations must disclose their process for handling complaints, ensuring you know where to file a complaint, if necessary. You can also file a complaint with the CA Department of Public Health.

Common patient complaints include understaffing, failure to provide patients with the knowledge and understanding to make informed decisions about their treatment plans, lack of protection against mistreatment from other patients or healthcare providers, disrespect towards patients, mistreatment based on gender identity, ethnicity, country of origin, and disregarding a patient’s requests and dismissing them as hysterical.

You also have the right to access your health information. You can view your health records and request a copy, although there may be associated charges. If access is denied, your doctor must provide an explanation. Additionally, you have the right to correct your health information, though your provider may deny your request. You can also permit or deny access to your health information and be informed of how it may be used and shared in the future.

Remember, you’re not alone in facing these issues.

To further understand your rights as a patient and how to advocate for yourself effectively, join the Human Health Project’s upcoming FREE Patient Advocacy workshops, take the short video Learning Academy course on Knowing Your Patient Rights as well as other related courses, that will provide valuable insights and guidance to empower yourself with the knowledge you need to ensure your rights are respected and upheld.

In addition, here are some helpful resources for understanding and asserting your patient’s rights:

• For a full list of California Patient Rights, please visit the California Department of State Hospital’s Patient Rights page. 
• Visit the California Attorney General’s website on Privacy Protections for more information about your rights and federal and state health laws.
• For assistance with health plan violations, Call the California Department of Managed Health Care’s HMO Help Center at 1-888-HMO-2219.
• For assistance with federal health privacy law violations, Contact the Federal Office of Civil Rights (OCR) website.
• See patient rights for individuals with mental health conditions: visit here.
• Spanish language version: visit here.