2011 Wyoming Statutes
TITLE 35 - PUBLIC HEALTH AND SAFETY
CHAPTER 2 - HOSPITALS, HEALTH CARE FACILITIES AND HEALTH SERVICES
35-2-607. Patient authorization to hospital for disclosure.

(a) A patient may authorize a hospital to disclose the patient's health care information. A hospital shall honor an authorization and, if requested, provide a copy of the recorded health care information unless the hospital denies the patient access to health care information under W.S. 35-2-612.

(b) A hospital may charge a reasonable fee, not to exceed the hospital's actual cost for providing the health care information under this section, and is not required to honor an authorization until the fee is paid.

(c) To be valid, a disclosure authorization to a hospital shall:

(i) Be in writing and dated and signed by the patient;

(ii) Identify the nature of the information to be disclosed;

(iii) Identify the person to whom the information is to be disclosed.

(d) Except as provided by this act, the signing of an authorization by a patient is not a waiver of any rights the patient has under other statutes, the rules of evidence or common law.

(e) A hospital shall retain each authorization or revocation in conjunction with any health care information from which disclosures are made.

(f) Except for authorizations to provide information to third-party health care payors, an authorization shall not permit the release of health care information relating to future health care that the patient receives more than twelve (12) months after the authorization is signed.

(g) An authorization to disclose health care information under this section is invalid after the expiration date contained in the authorization, which shall not exceed forty-eight (48) months. If the authorization does not contain an expiration date, it expires twelve (12) months after it is signed.