MyChart proxy access at 19 major US health systems

Read this first: what this page is and is not

This is a directory of published policy. Every fact below was read on the health system's own website, or in a form that the system itself publishes, on the date shown at the top of this page. Where an organization uses a particular phrase, the phrase is quoted rather than reworded, because the wording is often the part that matters.

Nothing here is advice, and nothing here is a decision any organization has made about a particular person. Policies change, individual circumstances differ, and the organization holding the record is the only authority on what it will accept. Confirm before acting on anything on this page.

One boundary is worth stating at the start, because it catches people out. Being granted proxy access in a portal is not the same as an outside app being able to read that record. They are two separate permissions and the organization controls them separately. NewYork-Presbyterian says as much in its own words, directing patients to contact its help desk about connecting other health applications.

Five different routes, and which one you get depends on the health system

Across these 19 systems, five distinct models are in use. Knowing which model a system uses tells you, before you start, whether this is something that can be finished at a kitchen table or something that needs a trip to a clinic.

• The patient invites from inside the portal. The patient sends an invitation, the caregiver accepts by email and then uses their own login. Cleveland Clinic, Mount Sinai, Northwestern Medicine.
• The caregiver asks and the patient approves. The caregiver starts the request and the patient has to grant permission before it takes effect. Kaiser Permanente, Ochsner Health.
• A signed form, often in person. An authorization is completed at a provider's office or submitted to health information management. NewYork-Presbyterian, Duke Health, UPMC, and Stanford Health Care as an alternative to its portal invitation.
• Legal documents only, where the adult can no longer decide for themselves. An invitation is not offered and a court order, power of attorney or guardianship letter is required. Johns Hopkins, UCSF Health, and Cleveland Clinic's guardianship route.
• No portal account needed at all. Mass General Brigham states that the patient does not need their own account for a proxy to have one, and documents a route by telephone with both people available for verbal consent. That is the lowest-friction route documented anywhere in this set.

The question that decides whether you can start at all: must you already be a patient?

This is the axis nobody advertises, and it is the one that stops out-of-state caregivers. A daughter in Ohio helping a father treated in Manhattan can complete one system's route and cannot complete another's, and neither system says so on the page a worried person lands on first.

The systems disagree, in plain published language.

• Must already be a patient. Mount Sinai: the person you are granting access to must already be a patient in the MSHS health system.
• Explicitly need not be. NewYork-Presbyterian: the portal proxy does not need to be a patient. Michigan Medicine: accounts can be created even if the user is not a patient at U of M.
• Not a patient means paper instead. Sutter Health directs anyone granting access to a person who is not a Sutter patient to fill out and sign the adult proxy authorization form.
• Both parties need an account of their own either way. UCLA Health and Houston Methodist both gate the self-service invitation on the caregiver already holding an account at that system.

When the adult can no longer decide for themselves, a doctor can sometimes stand in for a court order

The common assumption is that this situation always requires guardianship papers or a power of attorney. At Johns Hopkins, Cleveland Clinic and UCSF Health that is correct. It is not universal, and the exceptions matter most to a caregiver holding no legal paperwork at all.

Cedars-Sinai's diminished-capacity authorization is signed by the proxy and then certified by a physician, who attests to their determination of the patient's diminished capacity. Emory Healthcare publishes the same alternative in a single line, naming a power of attorney or documentation from an Emory provider as equally acceptable.

For someone with no court order and no power of attorney, that difference is the difference between a route and a dead end. Neither system states it anywhere a person would look first, which is a large part of why this page exists.

Giving access is consistently harder than taking it back

Where the two differ, granting takes a signature and revoking takes a click. NewYork-Presbyterian requires a signed authorization form completed at the provider's office to grant, and then lets the patient cancel it themselves under Share My Record. Duke Health has the same shape: a form to grant, and a Revoke button in the portal to remove.

That asymmetry is worth knowing if the hesitation is about sharing too much. Cedars-Sinai is the exception in this set and runs the other way: revocation there must go in writing, signed, to a street address in Los Angeles.

Fifteen names for the same thing

A caregiver searching for the wrong word finds nothing, and every system has picked a different word. All of these describe one adult being authorized to see another adult's record.

Mass General Brigham alone accounts for two of them. Its website says Patient Care Representative and the PDF that the same website links to says Patient Gateway proxy. One organization, two names, one click apart.

• proxy access, portal proxy access, Patient Gateway proxy, Patient Care Representative, Share Access
• Act for a Family Member, Sharing Hub, Share My Record, Friends and Family Access, Family Access
• Proxy Invite, Request Family Access, delegate access, surrogate proxy, Third Party Access

Cleveland Clinic

Their term is proxy access. The patient starts it from inside MyChart, and there is a separate paper route where guardianship or power of attorney is involved.

• Portal route: the patient selects a family member, close friend or caregiver, then chooses to manage ongoing access, then invites someone.
• The invited person must open the email, click the link to accept, sign in to their own MyChart account and enter the patient's date of birth.
• Guardianship or power of attorney: a paper caregiver form goes to Health Data Services with copies of the court documents or power-of-attorney paperwork.
• Stated timing: electronic forms three business days or less, paper forms one to two weeks.
• Stated limit: an adult-to-adult proxy caregiver cannot make changes to the account.

Kaiser Permanente

Their term is Act for a Family Member, and the authorized person is called a proxy. The caregiver starts the request and the member completes it.

• Route: sign in, choose Act for a Family Member, add a person, choose an adult you care for, then give the adult your full name, date of birth and kp.org user ID.
• The adult then adds you to their family list. Doing this in person at a facility with identification is offered as an alternative.
• Kaiser states that the adult will need to give Kaiser Permanente legal permission to add you as their caregiver.
• Kaiser says what a caregiver can access depends on the age and needs of the individual and on privacy laws in the state where they live.
• Important: Kaiser publishes region-specific pages and they do not all say the same thing. The Washington adult-proxy page is stricter, restricting adult access to holders of a durable power of attorney for health care or letters of guardianship. Read the page for your own region.

Johns Hopkins Medicine

Their term is proxy access, and Johns Hopkins publishes two levels of it, which most systems in this set do not.

• Adults 18 and older can authorize another person, and Johns Hopkins states that proxy access can be stopped at any time by either the proxy or the patient.
• The proxy must first create their own Johns Hopkins MyChart account.
• Two levels are published: Full Access, described as access to all MyChart features, and Scheduling Only, described as the ability to view and schedule appointments only.
• Incapacitated adult: sign the Incapacitated Adult Proxy Access form and submit it to a Johns Hopkins staff member with documentation supporting legal representative status, such as a court order. Staff then provide an access code.
• Step-by-step instructions are published in English, Arabic, Chinese, Korean, Russian and Spanish.

Stanford Health Care

Their term is MyHealth Share Access, described as proxy access for caregivers. There is a portal route and a paper route.

• Portal route, in the app or on the web: Settings, then Share Access, then Invite Someone.
• Paper route: the Adult Share Access Request Form is submitted in person at any Stanford Health Care clinic.
• Stanford states that an activation letter follows within five business days of submission.
• The page lists what a caregiver can do, including requesting appointments, sending non-urgent secure messages, seeing tests and procedures, and reviewing recommended education.
• The page does not state what a proxy may not do.

Mass General Brigham (Patient Gateway)

The portal is Patient Gateway. The website calls the role a Patient Care Representative and the PDF it links to calls the same role a Patient Gateway proxy. This system is also the only one in the set with a route that needs neither paper nor a portal account.

• Stated plainly in their own document: a Patient Gateway proxy is not the same thing as a health care proxy.
• The finding that separates this system from every other one here: the patient does not need to have their own account for a Patient Gateway proxy to have an account.
• Route where the patient has no account: it can be opened in person at an appointment, or by calling the Patient Gateway Help Desk with both the patient and the designated proxy available in person or by telephone for verbal consent.
• Route where the patient does have an account: Your Menu, search Sharing, Sharing Hub, then a family member, close friend or caretaker, then give ongoing access and send the invitation.
• Who may be a proxy: a spouse, parent, adult child or other designee authorized by the patient, who must be at least 18 and who will have access to the same information in Patient Gateway as the patient.

NewYork-Presbyterian (Connect)

The portal is called Connect rather than MyChart. Their term is portal proxy access. Granting needs a signed form; revoking does not.

• NewYork-Presbyterian states that the portal proxy does not need to be a patient, which makes this one of the more accessible systems for an out-of-state caregiver.
• The patient completes the Connect Patient Portal Proxy Access Authorization form at the provider's office. Once processed, the proxy receives an email to establish a Connect account on the patient's behalf.
• Limited capacity: where the patient is unable to sign the form, NewYork-Presbyterian directs you to contact the patient's provider. There is no self-service route.
• Revoking is in the patient's own hands: under Your Menu, Share My Record, then Friends and family access, which allows proxy access to be cancelled.
• On outside apps, NewYork-Presbyterian names MyLinks specifically and directs anything else to the myNYP help desk, treating app connection as a separate question from proxy access.

UCLA Health (myUCLAhealth)

Their term is proxy, defined as a person granted access to view another patient's health information. There is a form route and a portal route.

• Form route: adult patients can grant proxy access by completing a consent form, which the doctor's office provides and explains.
• Portal route: Your Menu, Sharing, Share My Record, then send the invitation.
• Requirement: both parties must have active myUCLAhealth accounts.
• The invited proxy is asked to confirm the patient's date of birth before access is granted.
• No adult limits are stated on this page. The restrictions it publishes apply to adolescents aged 12 to 17.

Duke Health (My Duke Health)

Their term is proxy access, and the boundary word they use is competent adult. A form grants it and a button removes it.

• Duke states that proxy access to a competent adult patient's account may generally be requested only by the patient, for another adult, with appropriate patient authorization.
• Route: the patient completes the authorization form and brings it to the next provider visit, or faxes it to Duke Medicine Health Information Management.
• Revoking is self-service: Menu, Share My Record, Friends and family access, then Revoke next to the proxy's name.
• The authorization form itemizes what the proxy sees, including secured messaging, appointments, test results, medications, allergies, immunizations, medical history, billing and insurance, and current health issues.
• Duke states in the same form that access is a privilege and not a right, and that Duke may deny or revoke a proxy's access for any reason and at any time.

Northwestern Medicine (MyNM)

Their term is proxy access, with a portal route and a form route. The form is published in four languages.

• Portal route: invite someone to be your MyNM proxy electronically using the Share My Record function.
• Form route: complete the appropriate proxy form to submit the request.
• The adult proxy form is published in English, Spanish, Polish and Arabic.
• What a proxy can do, in Northwestern's own list: view medications, health history, test results, clinical notes, discharge instructions and After Visit Summaries, request refills, manage appointments, and send secure messages to the care team.
• The form expires five years from the date of signature unless revoked, and its signature block includes a guardian or legal representative line even though the web page does not describe that route.

Mount Sinai (MyMountSinai)

Their term is proxy access, granted entirely inside the portal. This system carries the single most restrictive requirement in the set.

• The hard constraint: the person being granted access must already be a patient in the MSHS health system. An out-of-state caregiver who has never been treated at Mount Sinai cannot use this route.
• Route: Menu, then Sharing Hub, then choose a family member, close friend or caretaker, then give ongoing access and complete the invitation. A Family Access option is also offered.
• Mount Sinai states that the patient is responsible for revoking access when they no longer want the person seeing their information.
• No separate diminished-capacity route is stated on this page. Do not infer one.

UPMC (MyUPMC)

Their term is proxy access. For adults, UPMC points at a form rather than an online route, and that form is unusual in requiring two signatures.

• The published adult route is the Proxy Request Form for a Patient Age 18 or Older.
• Both the patient and the patient's representative must complete and sign it. Dual signature is unusual in this set.
• The online proxy route UPMC describes applies to patients under 18, not to adults.
• No legal-representative or incapacitated-adult route is stated on the page that was read. Do not infer one.
• A MyUPMC Friends and Family Access invitation route appears in search results, but no UPMC page stating it was opened, so it is not reported here as fact.

Houston Methodist

Their term is Adult-to-Adult Proxy Access, and they publish three separate routes depending on whether the patient can authorize on their own behalf.

• Self-service route: the person granting access clicks Proxy Invite and signs in to their MyChart account. Both parties must have a Houston Methodist MyChart account for this workflow.
• Electronic form route, used when Proxy Invite is not an option. It requires a signature from the person granting access, who should be an adult able to authorize on their own behalf.
• Third route: a different form where the adult granting access is not able to authorize on their own behalf, or where a medical power of attorney is involved.
• The forms are DocuSign links rather than downloadable documents. Start from the Houston Methodist proxy access page rather than from a form link, because those links are long and can change.

Michigan Medicine (MyUofMHealth)

Their term is proxy access. Michigan Medicine publishes both the ordinary adult route and the diminished-capacity route side by side on one page, which is the clearest presentation found in this research.

• Two online consent forms are named on the page: Requesting Access to a Minor Patient or Adult with Diminished Mental Capacity, and Adult Granting Access to Another Adult.
• Approval is not automatic. Michigan Medicine states that gaining proxy access requires its approval and that additional information may be required.
• Account rule: each adult must establish their own portal account, partners cannot share access without requesting proxy access, and accounts can be created even if the user is not a patient at U of M.
• Access levels: adults giving another adult access can decide whether that access is full or limited.
• A caveat no other system in this set states as plainly: the questions you ask become part of the patient's medical record, so ask only questions about their health while viewing their information through proxy.

Emory Healthcare

Partial entry, and it says so. Emory's published FAQ covers the diminished-capacity route clearly and the ordinary adult-to-adult route thinly.

• Verified: Emory Healthcare can grant access on behalf of a patient with diminished capacity with specific paperwork, such as a power of attorney or documentation from an Emory provider.
• The documentation-from-a-provider alternative to a legal instrument is notable. Most systems in this set name only legal documents.
• Not verified here: the ordinary adult-to-adult granting route. Search results describe a Share My Record path, but no Emory page stating it was opened, so it is not reported as fact.
• Verified and useful as contrast: when a patient turns 18, all existing proxy access is disabled automatically.

Ochsner Health (MyOchsner)

Their term is proxy accounts. The caregiver requests access from inside their own account.

• Route: open the menu, search for proxy or family access, then under Sharing select Request family access.
• Ochsner states that a parent, guardian or other adult with an active MyOchsner account may view a loved one's account with proxy access.
• Account rule: each adult must establish their own MyOchsner account.
• A durable healthcare power of attorney requirement appears in search results and seems to come from Ochsner's online terms of use rather than this page. It was not verified and is not reported here as fact.

Sutter Health (My Health Online)

Their term is proxy access. Sutter publishes the cleanest fork in this set: two clearly labelled routes side by side, one in the portal and one on paper.

• Stated conditions: the person being given access is 18 or over, and is a family member or has a legal right to manage your care.
• Non-patient route: if the person is not a Sutter patient, the adult proxy authorization form is used instead of the portal invitation.
• The page offers two parallel buttons, one to allow proxy access in My Health Online and one to allow it via the authorization form.
• Expect identity friction on the paper route. The form asks for the last four digits of the Social Security number of both people, and notes that legal documents such as a marriage certificate, birth certificate, guardianship papers or power of attorney may be required.
• Structurally this is the best-organized proxy page found in this research: one page, three audiences, both routes for each.

UCSF Health

Their term is proxy. The adult material UCSF publishes is specifically for adults determined to be disabled, and it requires legal documentation.

• Route: download and complete the appropriate form. The published adult form set is a disabled-adult proxy form, in English, Spanish, Chinese and Russian.
• The form states that it is used for adults over 18 determined to be disabled and unable to manage their own healthcare decisions, and that a power of attorney for health care, conservatorship or advance health care directive will be requested. A renewal may be requested.
• Revocation: proxy access can be revoked at any time by contacting the patient's practice, and takes effect within two business days.
• Expiry: the authorization does not expire unless the relationship between the legal guardian and the patient changes.
• UCSF states in its own words that MyChart displays certain information from medical records but does not display all health information in medical records. That is the same boundary Sahara states about itself, said here by a health system.

Cedars-Sinai (My CS-Link)

Their term is Authorization for Third Party Access, published as two separate forms, one for a competent adult and one for an adult with diminished capacity. At Cedars-Sinai the policy is only in the paperwork: the public pages redirect away and the forms are the readable source.

• Competent-adult route: the patient signs, and the proxy must also obtain their own My CS-Link account.
• The form states that the proxy will be able to view all information available now or later, explicitly including test results that may be released before the patient has reviewed them with their physician.
• The form warns that the record may include sensitive information relating to mental health, HIV test results, tests for sexually transmitted disease, genetic test results, or alcohol and drug use.
• Diminished-capacity route: signed by the proxy, who must show photo identification, and then certified by a physician who attests to the patient's diminished capacity. No court order is named as a requirement.
• Expiry, published more precisely here than anywhere else in this set: the competent-adult authorization expires ten years from the date the patient signs it, and the diminished-capacity authorization expires five years from the date the physician signs it.
• Revocation is on paper only, in writing and signed, delivered to the Health Information Department at a Los Angeles street address.

Vanderbilt (My Health at Vanderbilt)

Partial entry, and it says so. The Vanderbilt privacy document that was read covers the diminished-capacity route and does not describe the ordinary competent-adult route.

• Verified: where access is requested for an adult patient with diminished capacity, the request goes to legal review.
• Verified: only the portal support team can grant proxy access for legal cases.
• Not verified here: the ordinary competent-adult delegate route. It is not described in the document that was read, so nothing is reported about it.
• Named access types for minors, useful only as contrast: Preteen Surrogate and Teen Surrogate.

Two systems that do not publish this, which is itself worth knowing

Mayo Clinic and Penn Medicine are in this research and are not in the directory above, because neither publishes an adult proxy-access policy that can be read without signing in. That is not a gap in the research; it is a fact a caregiver benefits from knowing before spending an evening looking for it.

Mayo Clinic's caregiver-access page redirects to a sign-in screen and a direct request is refused. The process appears to be documented only inside the portal, so the practical route is to sign in or telephone.

For Penn Medicine, no public page stating an adult proxy route was found. Treat Penn as unknown rather than as having no proxy route. Search results describe Share Everywhere and a records authorization form, and both of those are different things from proxy access.

What proxy access does not do, including with Sahara

Getting proxy access at any of these organizations does not mean an outside application can read that record. The organization decides separately whether an app may connect, and to which record. Several systems in this directory say so themselves.

Sahara connects to Epic MyChart today, and to nothing else. Oracle Health, MEDITECH and athenahealth are not connected. Being granted proxy access at a system on this page is not a statement that Sahara will be able to retrieve that record, and nothing on this page should be read that way.

None of the organizations in this directory endorses Synodha or Sahara, and none of them has reviewed this page.

How this guide was prepared

Synodha's editorial team prepared this guide from the official sources listed below, checked the product statements against Sahara's current documented scope, and separated general education from patient-specific interpretation. No clinician review is claimed. This guide is educational and does not replace the source record, discharge instructions, a professional interpreter, or the care team.

Last reviewed August 31, 2026. Recheck the linked sources and the healthcare organization's current instructions before acting on health information.

Primary sources and scope

These official sources establish the current proxy-access, app-access, and patient-education context used in this guide. They do not endorse Synodha or Sahara.

• Cleveland Clinic: MyChart record sharing
• Kaiser Permanente: Act for a Family Member
• Johns Hopkins Medicine: MyChart proxy access
• Stanford Health Care: MyHealth Share Access for caregivers
• Mass General Brigham: Patient Gateway
• Mass General Brigham: Patient Gateway proxy access for adult patients (PDF)
• NewYork-Presbyterian: Connect patient portal FAQ
• NewYork-Presbyterian: how to connect applications
• UCLA Health: sign up for myUCLAhealth
• Duke Health: My Duke Health FAQ
• Northwestern Medicine: MyNM proxy access
• Mount Sinai: MyMountSinai FAQ
• UPMC: MyUPMC proxy access
• Houston Methodist: adult-to-adult proxy access
• Michigan Medicine: view health information of another adult
• Emory Healthcare: MyChart FAQ
• Ochsner Health: MyOchsner frequently asked questions
• Sutter Health: My Health Online proxy access
• UCSF Health: MyChart
• Cedars-Sinai: competent adult proxy form (PDF)
• Cedars-Sinai: adult with diminished capacity proxy request (PDF)
• Vanderbilt University Medical Center: granting MHAV access (PDF)
• MyChart: how to request or provide proxy access

Related Synodha resources

• Start here: how to view a loved one's MyChart record
• Next: read a loved one's MyChart lab results
• Next: understand a hospital discharge summary
• Next: help a Spanish-speaking parent understand their record
• Explore Sahara
• For caregivers