Correct. This guide uses the word “correct” to mean adding information to your medical record to make it more accurate or complete.

Health Care Professional. This guide uses “health care professional” to describe people who are licensed by the New Jersey Board of Medical Examiners (including medical doctors, doctors of osteopathy, and podiatrists). The term does not include dentists, pharmacists and other professionals who are licensed by other boards and subject to other rules.

Health Care Provider. In this guide, “health care provider” means health care professionals who are licensed by the New Jersey Board of Medical Examiners (including medical doctors, doctors of osteopathy, podiatrists) and hospitals. 

HIPAA Privacy Rule. A set of legal rules written by the United States Department of Health and Human Services under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA). These rules set national standards that give patients the right to see, copy, and amend their own health information. They also set standards protecting the privacy of health information. The HIPAA Privacy Rule does not apply to everyone who keeps health information about you. Health care providers (such as doctors and hospitals) and health plans (such as health insurers and Medicare) have to follow the HIPAA Privacy Rule. Others, such as employers, generally do not have to follow the HIPAA Privacy Rule.

HIPAA. Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996. This federal law directed the United States Department of Health and Human Services to write rules protecting the privacy of health information. The federal law leaves in place state laws that have privacy protections that are equal to or greater than the federal law. 

Notice of Privacy Practices. A notice that health care providers must give their patients that explains the patients’ rights under the HIPAA Privacy Rule. This notice must also explain how a provider can use health information and share it with others.

Personal representative. This guide uses the term “personal representative” to refer to someone who has the legal right to make health care decisions on behalf of another person. With respect to deceased people, the term “personal representative” is broader and includes someone who has the right to make any sort of decision on behalf of the individual or their estate.