How to answer a VA Form 21-4142 records request for a veteran's claim

When VA asks for a patient's records with the Veteran's signed VA Form 21-4142, a provider sends the records the form covers to the address or fax number on VA's request, by the date printed there. The signed form is the authorization, and a faxed copy counts. VA pays no custodian fees, and psychotherapy notes stay out.

What is a VA Form 21-4142 records request, and who fills out which form?

A VA Form 21-4142 records request is VA's request to a private provider for a Veteran's treatment records, sent with the Veteran's signed VA Form 21-4142 (AUG 2024) as the authorization. The Veteran, never the provider, completes the 21-4142 and lists providers and treatment dates on VA Form 21-4142a, which the Veteran mails to VA. VA's compensation exam page says VA will attempt to obtain the claimant's private records through its Private Medical Records contract.

The table sets out each step or document in a VA records request, who completes or sends it, the rule and the official source.

What does the signed 21-4142 let you send?

The signed VA Form 21-4142 lets a provider send the records it describes for 12 months from the date signed, including information created in the 12 months after signing as well as past information. A provider checks the signing date on each form against that 12-month window.

• A copy, facsimile or electronically transmitted version of the signed form is acceptable (VA's private-provider fact sheet), and the form itself authorizes the use of a copy, including an electronic copy, for the disclosure.
• A provider's own authorization form is not required (VA's key points page), and a minimum necessary determination is not required with an authorization (VA's private-provider page).
• The form's mental-health wording excludes psychotherapy notes as 45 CFR 164.501 defines them. VA recognizes the sensitivity and extra legal protections around psychotherapy notes and says the set of records can be sent without them; psychotherapy notes under HIPAA covers the rule.
• VA says the form was developed to comply with HIPAA and 42 CFR part 2, the substance use disorder records rule, so substance use disorder records go only where the form the Veteran signed covers them.

Where do you send the records, and by when?

A provider sends the records to the address or fax number printed on VA's request, by the date printed on that request. VA's private-provider pages name no receiving address, and neither VA's forms nor its regulations set a provider response deadline. The Evidence Intake Center box on the forms is where the Veteran mails them, so a provider answering a request uses the address or fax number on VA's request instead.

VA makes an initial request and, if the records are not received, at least one follow-up request (38 CFR 3.159(c)(1)). VA's duty-to-assist page says the same: VA makes at least 1 follow-up request for private records. A follow-up request is not required when the reply to the initial request says the records do not exist or that a follow-up request would be futile, so a provider who holds no records for the Veteran replies and says so.

The one-year limit belongs to the claimant. Under 38 CFR 3.158(a), evidence requested for a claim and not furnished within 1 year after the date of request leaves the claim considered abandoned.

Does VA pay for copies of medical records?

VA does not pay for copies of medical records: it will not pay any fees a custodian charges to provide the records requested (38 CFR 3.159(c)). A custodian is the person, company or agency holding the records, and the claimant authorizes release of existing records in a form the custodian accepts, which the signed VA Form 21-4142 does.

How do you send the records and prove they arrived?

A provider faxes the records to the number printed on VA's request, with VA's request letter or its reference on the first page, and keeps the delivery record with the signed VA Form 21-4142. How to tell if a fax went through sets out what a delivery record should show.

The form tells the Veteran that once the provider sends the information to VA under the authorization, it leaves the HIPAA Privacy Rule and falls under the Federal Privacy Act, 5 USC 552a, and that VA may disclose it as authorized by law.

What delays a VA records request?

A VA records request is delayed by records sent to the wrong address, psychotherapy notes included in the set, a demand for the practice's own authorization form, an authorization past its 12 months, or no reply at all.

• Records sent to the Evidence Intake Center box, which is where the Veteran mails the forms, instead of the address or fax number printed on VA's request.
• Psychotherapy notes in the set, because the form's mental-health wording excludes them.
• A demand for the practice's own authorization form, which VA says is not required, or a minimum necessary review that VA says is not required with an authorization.
• Substance use disorder records sent without reading the form, because they go only where the form the Veteran signed covers them.
• A signed 21-4142 older than 12 months, because the authorization is good for 12 months from the date signed.
• Silence: VA makes at least 1 follow-up request, and a reply that says the records do not exist relieves VA of that follow-up.

How do Social Security, disability insurers and attorneys ask for the same records?

Social Security, long-term disability insurers and attorneys each ask for the same kind of records on a different authorization, with a different address and clock.

• Social Security disability: SSA's request letter carries the fax number and goes in front as the barcode page, ahead of records released under the claimant's SSA-827 (how to fax documents to Social Security).
• Long-term disability insurers ask on their own signed authorization.
• Attorneys and record retrieval companies ask on a HIPAA authorization or a subpoena (medical records request from an attorney).
• Medicare additional documentation requests and Medicare Advantage chart requests carry their own clocks and addresses.

How do you send VA records securely and keep the record?

VA records go out securely when the practice faxes them on a HIPAA fax service bound by a signed BAA, from a number of its own that VA's follow-up request can reach. On Fax Pigeon the BAA is signed at signup on every plan, faxes go from the browser or from email, and paid plans use the practice's own number. A shared inbox with roles and assignment puts each VA request with the person handling it, and every delivered fax gets delivery proof. A cover sheet is optional, so VA's request letter can go first.

* Official sources (VA, the Code of Federal Regulations at govinfo.gov) were read on October 26, 2026. Fax Pigeon prices and plan terms as of October 26, 2026.