Patients who want to stop their medical records from being shared through Epic’s Care Everywhere network must opt out separately with each provider, and front-line staff may give them wrong information along the way, an Oct. 15 investigation by The Markup, which is part of CalMatters, found.
Alex Rosenblat, director of sociotechnical research at The Markup, spent the past year signing up as a new patient with 25 hospitals and clinics in seven states to test their opt-out processes.
Patients are included in Care Everywhere by default unless they opt out, Matt Doyle, who leads software development for Care Everywhere, told Ms. Rosenblat. Patients can withdraw authorization while staying visible to clinicians elsewhere, who would then need the patient’s consent to view records. They can also disappear from the network entirely. Since Epic introduced the second option in August 2025, 112 patients have chosen it, Mr. Doyle said. Epic says it has more than 305 million patient charts and that providers exchange about 22 million records through Care Everywhere each day.
However, there is no single place to revoke authorization across all providers. “You have to go to each custodian of your medical records,” Mr. Doyle said.
Patients aren’t offered an opt-out when they enroll in MyChart, though they can opt out afterward, Mr. Doyle said. Sean Bina, Epic’s vice president of access and patient experience, showed Ms. Rosenblat two MyChart settings: one for managing record-sharing authorizations and one for blocking other organizations from requesting records. However, those settings appear only at organizations that have updated their Epic software, Mr. Doyle said. Patients elsewhere must call the medical records department. Epic did not respond to follow-up questions from the publication, including how many patients can access the new controls.
At a Westlake, Ohio, location of Cleveland-based University Hospitals, Ms. Rosenblat’s messages to MyChart customer service and the system’s compliance department went unanswered. After several weeks of trying, a MyChart support representative directed her to medical records, which processed her Care Everywhere opt-out the same day.
Opting out of CliniSync, Ohio’s separate health information exchange, was harder. A University Hospitals receptionist relayed an email from a colleague saying CliniSync allows providers across organizations to access records when medically needed and that patients could not be removed from it. The hospital’s own privacy notice says patients can opt out.
CliniSync asks patients who submit its form directly to have it notarized; physician office or hospital staff can sign it instead. The investigation questioned the legal basis for the notary requirement. The Ohio Health Information Partnership, which operates CliniSync, declined to explain it. CliniSync later sent Ms. Rosenblat a letter confirming her opt-out had been processed. Unlike Care Everywhere, CliniSync applies a single opt-out across its entire network.
University Hospitals’ compliance office confirmed her CliniSync opt-out two weeks after her appointment. The health system declined to answer questions about whether patients can opt out of CliniSync and did not make anyone available for an interview, according to the publication.
The hospital’s consent form also says patients can refuse to let it photograph or record them and own the results. When Ms. Rosenblat tried to do so, the compliance office told her by email that patients could not change or withdraw from individual parts of the general consent form, including the section covering recording that may happen during care. University Hospitals declined to answer questions about whether patients can refuse, according to The Markup.
CalMatters, a nonprofit outlet, acquired The Markup in April 2024.
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