New guidance from HHS’s Office of Civil Rights and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality clarified that providers can’t use the Patient Safety Act to stop patients who believed they were harmed from obtaining records about their care.

The 22-page document addressed providers that “may be attempting to misuse the Patient Safety Act protections to avoid their external obligations,” work around federal and state regulations, and withhold individual records that could be used to sue providers.

The guidance included two examples of the way the law has been misinterpreted. First, some providers have been improperly maintaining required records as reports for a patient safety evaluation system (PSES), and claiming those records must be kept confidential. Second, the guidance accused some providers of making duplicate copies of patient records, which should remain accessible, placing them in safety reports and then destroying the originals.

“The Patient Safety Act was not intended to give providers such methods to evade their regulatory obligations,” the guidance said.

The document specifically warned against destroying records, advising providers to exercise “extreme caution” and taking the stance that destroying original documents on which a patient safety work product is based doesn’t absolve the provider from regulatory consequences.