Broader Access to Test Results.

Patients may obtain their test results directly from the laboratory that produced them, without having to go through their doctors, under regulations recently announced by the Obama administration.

The rule is part of a broader effort by the administration to give Americans more control over their health care. It supersedes state law and will have particular significance in 13 states that prohibit labs from releasing test results directly to patients.

Consumer groups said the rule will empower patients and reduce mistakes. A 2009 study in the Archives of Internal Medicine found that providers failed to notify patients of abnormal test results 7 percent of the time. Other estimates have put that rate higher.

Officials at the Department of Health and Human Services said the new rule will give patients another way to get information about lab-test results besides relying on their doctors.

Here is the official rule: https://s3.amazonaws.com/public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2014-02280.pdf