"Though they soon will, patients should not have a legal right to see their medical records. As a doctor, I see two r...

Irina on September 10, 2019

@phillip-Blackmar,

The doctor cites two reasons against the law that gives patients the right to see their records: (1) time required by medical personnel to retrieve the files that could be spent on other tasks; and (2) no patient ever asks for their records. It appears that the second reason cancels out the first - if no one asks for their records, then there is no time spent retrieving the files. The question asks us which of the following facts establishes that the second reason does not cancel out the first, which of the following, if true, would allow us to conclude that even if no patient asks for their record, the new law would still require medical personnel to spend time retrieving/ sorting patient files.

(A) tells us that the law will require doctors to have patient records available immediately at all times, meaning someone has to retrieve the file and deliver it to the doctor's office before each patient's visit even if the patient never asks for these records. Since there is time and labor involved with retrieving the records regardless of whether the patient asks for them in this scenario, the doctor's first reason remains valid independent of the second reason. Hence, (A) is the correct answer choice.

(B) Task of retrieving files will be given to the lowest-paid member of the doctor's staff.

Incorrect. Regardless of who performs the task, arguably if no one asks for the records, no member of the doctor's staff has to spend any time to comply with the law.

(C) Any patients who asked for medical records would also want the details explained to them.

Incorrect. This answer choice involves a scenario where patients do ask for their medical records, meaning the doctor's second reason is irrelevant altogether.

(D) The new law allows doctors to charge patients extra to comply with the law

Incorrect. The argument never mentions the cost of compliance, the concern is the time spent on retrieving files that could otherwise be spent on more important tasks.

(E) Some doctors all along had the policy of allowing patients to see their records, but no one took advantage of it.

Incorrect. This scenario tells us that the second reason is true, no patients ever asked for their records, but it fails to demonstrate how the first reason is still valid as it never mentions any extra staff time associated with having this policy in place even when no one ever took advantage of it.

Let me know if this helps and if you have any other questions.

phillip-blackmar on September 10, 2019

thank you!