When a patient requests an old x-ray report taken when they were a child, are you allowed to disclose it?

The correct response is that you are allowed to disclose an old x-ray report because the records are part of the designated record set. A designated record set includes medical records and billing records maintained by a healthcare provider that are used to make decisions about an individual's healthcare. Since the x-ray report is part of the patient's medical history, it falls under this category.

Patients have the right to access their medical records, including any records that may have been created in their childhood. As long as the request is made by the patient themselves, the healthcare provider can disclose this information without requiring additional authorization. This access supports transparency and allows patients to be informed about their medical history.

In contrast, if disclosures required additional authorization, it would hinder patient access to their medical records, which is not the case when patients request their own records. Notably, the presence of the patient during disclosure or the age of the records does not negate the right to access them; hence, those options do not align with the regulations governing patient access to medical information.