What OCR announced
HHS Office for Civil Rights announced on August 27, 2026 that Azul Vision, Inc., a California eye care provider, paid $50,000 under a resolution agreement. According to the release, a patient complained to OCR in April 2023 that she had not received her records after a January 2023 request. She did not receive them until January 2025, after OCR opened its investigation. OCR found the provider "potentially failed to take timely action" on the requests. The release notes that the right of access generally requires a response within 30 days, with one possible 30 day extension.
What the agreement requires
The corrective action plan is monitored by OCR for two years. It requires the provider to review and revise its written policies as needed, to regularly submit to HHS a log of access requests showing the date each was received and the date each response was completed, and to train all workforce members on the right of access and its related policies.
Analysis: The log requirement is the practical lesson. A clinic that tracks request and response dates for every records request can show compliance in minutes. One that does not has to reconstruct it under investigation.
This brief rests on the primary source linked above. Education only; nothing here is legal advice.
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