How private are your medical records? In Utah, the rules on confidentiality change depending on where you go for care and what you sign. News Specialist Karen Schaler looks at how you can protect yourself.

You go to the doctor for health problems--problems that should be confidential. But when you sign a permission form like this, you're giving medical providers the right to release your medical records. At the medical records office at University Hospital, health care providers say they go to extra lengths to protect patient privacy.

((KAREN SCHALER-REPORTING: AND FOR EXTRA PROTECTION ONLY A FEW PEOPLE HAVE ACESS TO ALL THESE MEDICAL RECORDS, THEY DON'T EVEN HAVE NAMES ON THEM, THEY HAVE NUMBERS!))

But the problem is, your records can be released to other agencies for law enforcement, employement, or insurance purposes.

((AL TOKKUNAGA-UNIV HOSPITAL MEDICAL RECORDS: ONCE WE RELEASE IT TO A CARRIER WE LOSE CONTROL OVER THE PRIVACY IT THEN DEPENDS ON THE ETHICS OF THE PERSON GETTING THE INFORMATION.))

Utah health care providers say often times people signing up for a health care plan or buying life insurance don't realize they're releasing their medical records. Because of this confusion and because all states are different, Federal Health leaders are meeting with a senate committe today working to create federal privacy standards.

In the meantime, Utah health experts say the best way to protect yourself is know what's in your own medical record, know who has access to your information and don't sign a release form without reading it carefully.

The proposed national standards would regulate when medical records could be released and how much information is given out. But insurance and business groups are rallying against stricter rules. They say they need access to this information.