There are no official guidelines to assist in answering this question. I will search for relevant research papers instead.
From the Research
Laws and Regulations
- There is no specific law that requires doctors to disclose medical test results to patients within a certain time frame once available, as noted in the study 1.
- However, the 21st Century Cures Act mandates immediate availability of test results upon request, but it does not require that patients be informed of results 2.
- Federal law promotes patients' access to their protected health information, but this access remains limited, and there are discrepancies in the information provided to patients regarding medical records release processes 3.
Disclosure Obligations
- The doctrine of informed consent has been one of the primary vehicles by which American courts and legislatures have evaluated the nature and scope of information that physicians must disclose to patients 4.
- Physicians have the primary responsibility to disclose to patients the nature of a proposed course of treatment, material risks and benefits, as well as reasonably available alternatives, in obtaining consent to treatment 4.
- There is an ethical principle of the "right not to know," which argues that autonomous individuals can choose not to know relevant health information, and patients may request non-disclosure of primary genetic test results 5.
Patient Preferences and Notification Policies
- Patients have varying preferences for how medical test results are delivered, with some preferring open-ended timing and others preferring closed-ended timing 1.
- Notification policies, such as immediate notifications for all results or notifications only to patients who opt in, can impact patient-before-clinician result review and patient-initiated messaging 2.
- Replacing automated notifications with an opt-in policy provides patients flexibility to indicate their preferences but may not substantially alleviate clinicians' messaging workload 2.