Obtaining your records on your own behalf is, ironically, only half of the story. You are not the only one with an interest in your health information. Others who have an interest in your information include doctors and hospitals who treat you....and that makes sense, right? Even your insurance company who pays your bills, they have a legitimate interest in seeing what they are paying for. But there are others, like companies who do business with hospitals, researchers, accounting or consulting firms, and data clearing houses (who house electronic data) who also have access to your health information. Under HIPAA, which is the law that governs the protection of medical records, these other organizations can obtain access to your information as “business associates” of the hospital or doctor. Under HIPAA, these business associates are still bound by the same protections as the hospital or doctor they received the information from. But, the bigger issue for most of us is that they have the information to begin with. We may have a greater comfort with some of these groups using our information than others, like medical researchers.