This guide is a working reference to patient rights in records, privacy, and medical decision-making, written for patients, advocates, and the counsel who handle their claims. It sets out the statutory and regulatory architecture, then treats the right of access in detail: what the designated record set includes, the deadlines, the format and fee rules, the narrow grounds for denial, and the specific ways providers get it wrong. Amendment receives extended treatment because the statement of disagreement that follows a denial is frequently more valuable than the correction. Privacy chapters cover permitted disclosures, authorizations, the minimum necessary standard, business associates, and the subpoena rules that decide whether records reach a courtroom. Heightened-protection chapters address substance use disorder records, psychotherapy notes, genetic information, minors, and decedents. Decision-making chapters cover informed consent, refusal, advance directives, surrogates, and emergency care obligations. Enforcement chapters explain what remedies exist, what does not, and where complaints actually work. Reference tables close the guide with every authority linked to its text.