Five Things You Need to Know about sharing your health information - Brent Follas

1. The VA MISSION Act allows VA to now share your health information with participating community care providers for your care and treatment as permitted by federal privacy laws. You do not have to take any action unless you choose not to share your health information electronically.

2. Rest assured. Your health information is safe and secure as it moves from VA to participating community care providers. VA uses a secure network called the Veterans Health Information Exchange (VHIE) to protect and easily share in real-time your health information.

3. Sharing your health information saves you time, and improves your health. By having all of your information available, your providers will have a more complete picture of your health history to better inform treatment decisions.

4. You can always opt out of sharing your information. If you don’t want to share your health information electronically, complete and return VA Form 10-10164 (Opt Out of Sharing) to the Release of Information (ROI) Office at your VA Medical Center or by mail. If a community care provider requests your records in an emergency, information will be shared even if you have opted out of sharing. Traditional paper forms of health information sharing will remain available regardless of your preference to share or not share electronically. If you opted out of sharing, but change your mind, you can opt back in and authorize VA to share your health information by completing and returning VA Form 10-10163 (Opt In for Sharing) to your ROI Office or by mail.

5. There is no deadline to submit your Form 10-10164. You can submit your Form 10-10164 at any time. If you submitted Form 10-0484 before September 30, 2019, you do NOT need to submit Form 10-10164.