The 21st Century Cures Act and You
The 21st Century Cures Act is designed to make healthcare information more accessible and transparent. At UT Health Austin, this information will be made available to you through documents posted by your care team in your MyUTHA Patient Portal hosted by Athena.
These documents will appear under the “Visit Notes” under the “My Health” tab in your portal. Visit Notes refer to any documentation with details regarding a patient’s ongoing care or treatment. Please be aware that Visit Notes can include patient-facing notes and documentation used internally by clinicians. It’s important to be mindful that it may take up to 3 business days for your clinician to complete and close your Visit Notes. Your clinician will notify you through the portal when the notes are complete. If you do not have access to, or do not use, the patient portal, Visit Notes are available upon request.
You will have access to see important health-related documents such as:
- Encounter Summary – An encounter summary provides an overview of a visit with key chart data and may include notes intended for clinician use.
- Procedure Notes – A procedure note includes details and notes about a medical procedure (like an x-ray, MRI, or colonoscopy.
- Discharge Summaries – Your discharge summary from an area hospital will not be available from our team and you would need to reach out to the specific hospital where you were admitted to obtain those records.
- Consult Notes - A consultation note is a note with an opinion or advice from another doctor or specialist.
- Lab and Test Results - Please note, your lab and test results may appear in your portal before your provider has had a chance to review them and make recommendations. In general, your provider will notify you through your portal once they have reviewed your results.
You may download a flyer about this information here.
21st Century Cure Act FAQs
The 21st Century Cures Act is a federal law that allows you the ability to see your health care information quickly and transparently. If you use the patient portal you’ll be able to download your visit notes to enhance shareability with your other providers or family members.
Although your visit notes and lab results may be available almost immediately or within a day or two, your provider may not have yet closed or reviewed your lab or x-ray results. In general, please allow at least 3 business days for your provider to review, make recommendations, and close visit your visit notes.
After logging into the MyUTHA portal, select the “My Health” menu, and select “Visit Notes”. From “View Document”, you can print and/or download your selected document (s). Your documents can be downloaded in PDF or JPEG format.
Not unless your provider documents and publishes the call in your visit notes.
You have the right to request an amendment to your medical record if you believe the information is incorrect or incomplete. The amendment would include the information you believe is in error and your proposed corrections to that information. To request an amendment please call 1-833-882-2737
Visit the MyUTHA Patient Portal page for instructions on how to set up and access the portal.
If you do not have access to, or do not use, the patient portal, Visit Notes will be made available upon request.
Contact UT Health Austin’s Medical Record department at 1-833-882-2737 or visit our medical records page here to download the Authorization to Release Records form.