| Course | HI135 Legal Aspects of Health Information |
|---|---|
| Unit | Unit 1 |
| Paper type | Discussion board post |
| Length | About 550 words, 3 pages double-spaced |
| Format | APA 7 discussion post |
| School | Purdue University Global |
| Program | BS in Health Information Management |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for HI135 Unit 1
The Practice Keeps the File and the Patients Keep the Say: A Unit 1 Discussion Board Post Separating Ownership From Control When a Departing Physician Wants His Charts Boxed and Sent After Him
HI135 · Unit 1 Discussion Board Post
Posted by [Student Name]
The practice, the physician and the scenario are composite; the rules described and the sources cited are real.
Initial Post
The scenario is one I saw at my last job. Dr. M. gave notice to the four-physician practice where he had worked for eleven years and asked the office manager to box the charts of "his" patients, about 1,900 of them, and send them to his new practice across town. The manager asked me whether he could do that. Ownership first. The medical record is the practice's business record. The practice created and maintained it, bills from it and must produce it for audits, lawsuits and its own patients for years after the physician leaves. Dr. M. wrote much of it, but authorship does not transfer custody. The originals stay with the practice, which remains answerable for keeping them secure and retaining them for the period state law requires. Control second. What the record says belongs, in a practical sense, to each patient. Federal rules give every patient the right to see and obtain a copy of their own information, generally within 30 days of a request (45 C.F.R. § 164.524, 2024). A patient who wants to follow Dr. M. can ask for a copy to go to his new office, either as their own access request directed to a third party or through a signed authorization. That is a patient's decision, made one patient at a time. The boxes cannot move, but every page inside them can follow a patient who asks. Applying both. The practice keeps all 1,900 originals. It sends a letter to Dr. M.'s active patients saying he is leaving, where he will practice, that they are welcome to stay with the practice or to move, and how to request that a copy of their record be sent wherever they choose. The letter comes from the practice, not from Dr. M., and says nothing that pressures patients either way. When requests arrive, copies go out under the access or authorization rules, and each release is logged. Copies for continuing care are handled promptly, because a patient whose new physician cannot see their history is the person this whole arrangement is meant to protect. Disclosures for treatment between providers are also allowed without authorization when the new physician is treating the patient (45 C.F.R. § 164.506, 2024), so once a patient has an appointment at the new office, the two practices can exchange what is needed for care.
Reply to Classmate
You argued that the patient owns the record because the information is about them. I think that runs ownership and control together. If patients owned the paper or the database, a practice could not keep originals after a patient left, yet it must, for its own legal protection and for the patient's future requests. What the patient holds is a set of rights over the information: to see it, copy it, correct it and decide who else gets it. Those rights are strong, and they do not need ownership to work.
References
45 C.F.R. § 164.506 (2024). https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-45/section-164.506
45 C.F.R. § 164.524 (2024). https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-45/section-164.524
What the HI135 Unit 1 assignment asks for
In the first board of this health information management course, students are typically asked to analyze who owns a health record and who controls the information in it, often through a scenario. Distinguish custody of the physical or electronic record from the patient's rights over the information, and apply both to the facts you are given. Name the legal sources that create patient rights, even briefly, and explain what the provider remains responsible for. Show how the situation should be handled in practice, including communication with patients. Keep the post within the word limit your section sets, often about 400 words. Replies should test a classmate's reasoning, especially any claim that blurs ownership and control, rather than simply agree with it.
How this HI135 Unit 1 example is built
The post opens with the scenario drawn from the writer's last job and the office manager's question. A paragraph on ownership explains why the practice keeps the originals: it created them, bills from them and must produce them later. A paragraph on control lists the patient's rights to see and copy their information and to direct copies to a new provider. A highlighted line sums up the split. The application paragraph describes a letter from the practice offering patients a choice, copies released by request or authorization and logged, and treatment exchanges between providers. A single reply challenges a classmate who argued that patients own the record, explaining why rights do not require ownership.
Reading the HI135 Unit 1 grading rubric
HI 135 discussion grading usually rewards a clear legal distinction applied to facts. Points go to separating custody from patient rights and to applying each to the scenario's details. Credit increases for naming the source of patient rights accurately, such as the federal access rule, without turning the post into a list of citations. Instructors value practical handling that protects continuity of care and avoids conflicts of interest, such as who sends notice letters. Replies are scored on whether they correct or extend a classmate's reasoning. Clear organization, APA references and posting on time complete the rubric. Posts that treat the departing physician's authorship as ownership typically lose content points.
Common HI135 Unit 1 mistakes, and how to avoid them
A common slip is saying that the patient owns the record, which leaves no explanation for why providers must keep originals for years. Another is siding with the departing physician because he wrote the notes. Keep the two questions apart and answer each. Do not forget the practical step that matters most, getting copies to a patient's new physician quickly. Avoid quoting long passages of regulation; state the right and cite it. In replies, ask how a classmate's position would work when a patient asks for copies years later. If your section uses a different scenario, such as a hospital closing or a practice sale, share it and our writers will apply the same distinction to your facts.
Get an HI135 Unit 1 example written to your instructions
Paste the Unit 1 discussion prompt into your request with the rubric attached, and name the ownership scenario your instructor set if there is one. We write a custom post to those instructions, reply included where your section grades replies, and the first sample costs nothing. Expect it back within 24-48h, built for this course rather than borrowed from another. The paper above is an original model document written by our desk, not a submitted student paper and not an official Purdue University Global document.
More HI135 papers and BS in Health Information Management samples
- HI135 Unit 2: Authorization Review
- HI135 Unit 3: Release of Information Case
- HI135 Unit 4: Privacy Notice Comparison
- HI135 Unit 5: Retention Schedule
- HI135 Unit 6: Seminar Reflection
- HI135 Unit 7: Amendment Response Letter
- HI135 Unit 8: Breach Notification Memo
- HI135 Unit 9: Disclosure Log Entry
- HI135 Unit 10: Privacy Policy Draft
HI135 Unit 1 questions, answered
Does the post need to cite a statute to argue ownership?
Rarely at this stage. Unit 1 in many sections rewards a clear distinction applied to facts more than a citation list, so the example names the principle and saves specific authority for later units. If your prompt asks for a source, one well chosen reference placed beside the claim it supports reads better than a paragraph of law up front.
Is an electronic record owned any differently from a paper one?
Not in the way this post argues it. The storage medium changes who can reach the information and how access is tracked, but the practice still answers for the record and the patient still directs its disclosure. The post mentions this in one line, because the medium question belongs to the systems courses rather than to this one.
Can the replies be written with the post?
Yes. Tell us how many replies your section expects and whether they carry separate points. Each reply in the example adds a fact that moves the analysis, a guardian signing for an adult, a subpoena arriving mid-transfer, then asks the original poster to rule on it. Replies built that way give the instructor something to grade beyond agreement.
Where can I find a free HI135 Unit 1 sample paper?
The full Unit 1 post on the departing physician's charts, with the reply, is on this page.
Does a patient own their medical record?
The provider keeps the record as its business record, while the patient holds strong rights over the information, including access, copies, amendment and control over most disclosures.