Authorization letter: when to use it
Authorization letter: If you have been given a letter from a client or a family member to allow access to their personal records information, you would use it when you required that information or another person with whom your need for access is required. A letter of authorization is generally given by a patient to a doctor to allow that doctor to share his medical records about him with agencies or person's requesting that information. You would only use your letter of authorization if another individual or agency has a signed consent form from him allowing them to ask for his records from you.
The case scenario could be like this, for example, a client composes a letter of authorization stating that you can allow a hospital to share their results from tests with a specified individual. You are in possession of that letter. You use that letter, presumably his doctor, to get the hospitals tests results. Of course, most doctors have forms asking the patient to sign consent to get results from doctors and hospitals that the patient has reported seeing or being treated from. There are other kinds of authorization letters. A family friend can write a letter of authorization allowing you to intervene on her behalf with anyone that she wants you to intervene with.
The letter of authorization is probably going to depend on the agency or the office that you are using it for your friend to share information or to get information. They might require a personal call from the person who supposedly wrote the letter just for verification.
A letter of authorization isn't really a proxy which would have actual legal power of attorney in some situations. For the most part a letter of authorization is written by someone who is seeing more than one medical person and wants them all to share their results about him. Therefore, you would use a letter of authorization when the person who gave it to you is authorizing another person to gain access to your information. Also, you would use your letter of authorization when you need information about the person who signed the letter of authorization..