How to Get Your VA Medical Records

VA keeps your health care records and your claim records in different places. A Blue Button download from My HealtheVet is not your C-file, and your C-file is not a complete copy of your VA treatment chart. Before you ask for anything, decide which record answers your question, then ask the office that holds it.

VA medical records, C-file or service records: which one you need

The requests overlap in one place. VA's personal records request also lists your DD214, your official military personnel file and service treatment records among the compensation and pension records you can ask VA for. That gets you the copy VA holds.

How to get your VA medical records online

VA's online medical records are in My HealtheVet on VA.gov, where you can find, review, print and download each part of your VA medical records. My HealtheVet moved to VA.gov on June 4, 2025, and you sign in with an identity-verified Login.gov or ID.me account.

VA says you can manage your medical records online if you meet both of these requirements:

• you are enrolled in VA health care, and
• you are registered as a patient in a VA health facility

VA's FAQ on reviewing records online lists what the medical records section holds:

• lab and test results, including blood tests, X-rays and other imaging tests
• care summaries and notes from your VA providers, including admission and discharge summaries
• vaccines
• allergies and reactions, including side effects from medications
• basic vitals, like blood pressure, height, weight and temperature
• health conditions your VA care team is helping you manage

You can sign up for email notices when medical images you requested are ready. For help with the site, VA's My HealtheVet line is 877-327-0022 (TTY 800-877-8339), Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time.

The VA Blue Button report

VA still offers the VA Blue Button report in My HealtheVet. VA describes it as a report you customize by choosing a date range and the types of information you want, such as lab results and progress notes. When My HealtheVet moved to VA.gov, VA said the Blue Button report would no longer include My Goals, Wellness Reminders or VA electrocardiogram (EKG) information. The medical records section also has a "Download your medical records reports" area, where you can get a report of anything you entered yourself in the old My HealtheVet.

What to do with a download:

1. Save the original file unchanged before you highlight, crop or summarize it.
2. Check the first and last dates in the file, and whether the visit or test you care about is actually there.
3. Treat a gap as a question, not an answer. A note missing from one download does not prove the note never existed. Ask the Release of Information office for it.

If you get care at a facility that used the retired My VA Health portal, VA says that for a period of time you may need different reports or documents for different dates and facilities. That is one more reason to check the date range of every download.

How to request VA medical records from Release of Information

VA says you can get a complete copy of your VA medical records from your VA health facility's medical records office, also called the Release of Information office. VA's records request page gives these routes:

1. Online, by secure message. Send a secure message saying which records you want. Pick a care team from the facility where you got care that has "Release of Information" in its name. VA says it will acknowledge the message within 3 business days and tell you the next steps. If no team with that name appears, use one of the routes below.
2. By mail, fax or in person. Fill out VA Form 10-5345a, Individuals' Request for a Copy of Their Own Health Information, and send it to the facility's medical records office. If you go in person, bring a valid photo ID, like your Veteran Health Identification Card or driver's license.

To find the office's address, phone and fax number, find your facility on VA.gov, go to the Other services section of the facility's main page and select Access your health records. If you get care at a community based outpatient clinic, VA says to call the medical records office first, because you may need to request your records through the parent VA health facility.

Two forms get mixed up. VA Form 10-5345a is for your own copy. VA Form 10-5345, Request for and Authorization to Release Health Information, authorizes VA to share your health information with someone outside VA, such as a private doctor.

Ask for specific records when you can: the facility, the dates and the record types, such as primary care notes from 2019 to 2021 or one MRI report. A precise request is easier to check when it comes back.

If a VA note is wrong, do not alter your copy. VA's Privacy Act page says you can ask for an amendment of a VHA health record in writing to the Privacy Officer at the facility where you got care, or through My HealtheVet secure messaging. Name the note title, the date of the note and the specific information you want changed.

How long it takes to get VA records

Each office publishes its own timing, and some publish none. These are the figures I could source:

If a VA health records request will take longer than expected, VA says it will mail you a letter. If you do not get a letter within 20 calendar days, you can contact the facility's medical records office. VA says contacting the office before then may cause a delay. The National Archives says express mail only gets a request there sooner; it is not processed faster.

Waiting for records does not change a deadline printed on a VA decision letter. If a review deadline is close, see the deadline table in the VA claim status guide and file on time.

What is a VA C-file, and how to request it

The C-file is VA's claims file. VA's claims manual defines the electronic claims folder, or eFolder, as "an electronic repository for scanned documents related to a single Veteran," kept in VA's claims system (M21-1, Part II, Subpart ii, 1.A). It is where you check what evidence VA had when it decided your claims.

It is not your VA health record. A C-file can hold VA treatment records that VA pulled for a decision, but the full chart stays with your VA health facility. Request each record from the office that keeps it.

To request your C-file, use VA Form 20-10206, Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) or Privacy Act (PA) Request:

1. Online. VA's personal records request tool needs an identity-verified Login.gov or ID.me account. It lists the claims file (C-file), claim exams, your DD214, your official military personnel file, service or military treatment records and pension documents among the records you can request.
2. By mail. Department of Veterans Affairs, Evidence Intake Center, PO Box 4444, Janesville, WI 53547-4444.
3. By fax. The form's instructions give a toll-free fax number, 844-531-7818.
4. In person. Bring the completed form to a VA regional office.

The tool is only for your own records. For someone else's records, VA points to a FOIA request through its Public Access Link. Under VA's Privacy Act rule, the copying fee for one complete set of your own benefit records is waived (38 CFR 1.577(f)).

To get a C&P exam report, use the same form. VA's claim exam page says you cannot get the results at your exam or directly from the exam provider; you request a copy of the final exam report on VA Form 20-10206. The C&P exam guide covers what to check in the report.

Save the date you asked and any confirmation. Claim Raven's C-file request page links VA's request and has a tracker, free with a Claim Raven account, for the date you asked and the date the file arrived. Claim Raven does not request the file for you, and the tracker saves in your browser.

What to read first in your C-file

A C-file can run to thousands of pages. Read it in an order that answers questions:

1. The newest rating decision. VA's manual says a rating decision has a Narrative and a Codesheet. The Narrative includes an Evidence section listing what VA considered. The Codesheet holds information about you, the current decision, past decisions and your current entitlement (M21-1, Part V, Subpart iv, 1.A). Compare that evidence list with what is actually in the file.
2. C&P exam reports and medical opinions. Check the history the examiner wrote down, the diagnosis and whether the opinion answers the question VA asked.
3. What you sent and what VA asked for. Check that VA received what you submitted, that it requested the records you named, and whether any letter said records were unavailable.
4. Service records. Check dates, duty stations and treatment entries against what you remember.

You can read the file yourself, or ask an accredited VSO; VA says a VSO's help on your claims is always free. Raven Cipher is software for the same job: you upload the C-file PDFs, several at once if the file came in parts, and a free preview lists the record types, the period covered and the condition and medication names it detects. The full review is a separate purchase that brings decisions, exams and condition timelines together with source pages and flags records that disagree. It does not decide whether something is clear and unmistakable error. For paid human file reviews and how they compare, see C-file review services vs. software.

How to get your service treatment records and military records

Service treatment records cover the outpatient, dental and mental health care you got in service, including entrance and separation physicals. The National Archives says hospital inpatient (clinical) records are usually filed separately and sent to the National Personnel Records Center by the facility that created them. If you were hospitalized in service, ask about those records by name.

Where your health record went depends on your branch and when you left, according to the National Archives:

Before those dates, the National Archives says, the services sent the health record to the National Personnel Records Center along with the personnel record when a member separated.

You do not need your records before you file. The National Archives says veterans filing a claim do not need to request a copy of their military health record, because VA obtains it after the claim is filed. VA's claims manual says that when a veteran whose service ended on or after January 1, 2014, files a claim, VA's system automatically requests the service treatment records from the Defense Department's records system, HAIMS (M21-1, Part III, Subpart ii, 2.B). VA also says it requests your DD214 itself when it gets a benefits application. A copy of your own still helps you check what VA will see.

To get your own copy:

• Records VA holds: VA Form 20-10206 lists service or military treatment records among the records you can request.
• The National Archives: use eVetRecs online, which needs an identity-verified ID.me account, or mail or fax Standard Form 180. The National Archives says basic personnel and health record information is generally free for veterans and next of kin. Records become archival 62 years after separation, and archival copies carry a fee: $25 for a file of five pages or less, $70 for six pages or more.
• The Defense Department's milConnect: VA says you can request your records through milConnect if you left the Air Force after October 1, 2004, the Army after October 1, 2002, the Marines after January 1, 1999, or the Navy after January 1, 1995. If you served in the Marines from 1998 or the Coast Guard from 2008 to the present, VA says to contact your personnel command, or ask the National Archives to forward the request.

The National Personnel Records Center's customer service line is 314-801-0800.

What VA must do when service treatment records are missing

Missing service treatment records do not end a claim. Under the duty to assist in 38 CFR 3.159:

• For federal records, VA keeps asking. That includes military records and records from VA facilities. VA makes "as many requests as are necessary" and stops only if it concludes the records do not exist or further efforts would be futile (3.159(c)(2)).
• VA must tell you what it could not get. The notice must name the records, explain what VA tried, say what VA will do next (usually decide the claim on the evidence it has unless you send the records) and tell you that you are ultimately responsible for providing the evidence (3.159(e)). VA's manual calls this the final notification letter (M21-1, Part III, Subpart ii, 1.A). Keep it: it shows which records are gone and where VA looked.

VA's duty is heightened when records are lost through no fault of yours. The Veterans Court summarized its earlier cases in Coburn v. Nicholson (January 26, 2006): when service medical records are presumably destroyed, VA has a heightened duty to help develop the claim, and the Board has a heightened duty to explain its decision and to evaluate and discuss all the evidence that may be favorable to you (citing Russo v. Brown, 9 Vet. App. 46, 51 (1996), and O'Hare v. Derwinski, 1 Vet. App. 365, 367 (1991)).

That does not lower what you have to show. VA's manual lists three components of direct service connection: a current disability, an event, injury or disease in service, and a link between them. What changes is how the missing record can be used. In Buchanan v. Nicholson, 451 F.3d 1331 (Fed. Cir. 2006), the Federal Circuit held that the lack of contemporaneous medical records may be weighed against your lay evidence, but does not, by itself, make that evidence not credible.

Here is the share of Board rulings granted when the Board found lay statements credible, and when it did not:

Board of Veterans' Appeals rulings, 2021 to 2026, from Claim Raven's reading of 511,036 decisions. Appealed claims, not first-time claims, and not your personal odds. Associations, not causes. Lay evidence is read only on rulings the Board granted or denied. A credibility finding often travels with other strong evidence, so this shows what credible statements sit beside, not what they cause. How these figures are built.

If you served in combat, 38 CFR 3.304(d) says satisfactory lay or other evidence of an injury or disease in combat will be accepted if it is consistent with the circumstances of that service, even with no official record. The link to your current condition still needs its own evidence.

Were my records destroyed in the 1973 fire?

The National Archives says the July 12, 1973, fire at the National Personnel Records Center destroyed about 80 percent of records for Army personnel discharged from November 1, 1912, to January 1, 1960, and about 75 percent for Air Force personnel discharged from September 25, 1947, to January 1, 1964, with names alphabetically after "Hubbard, James E." VA adds that the fire did not involve records for Army retirees and Reservists who were alive on July 12, 1973. If your service falls outside those groups, a missing page is probably not a fire loss, so ask where else it went.

For a fire-related file, VA's reconstruction page says to file NA Form 13055, Request for Information Needed to Reconstruct Medical Data, with your claim and to list your unit, company, battalion, regiment, squadron, group or wing. VA sends the request to the National Personnel Records Center, which may rebuild parts of your service treatment records from unit records, morning reports and hospital admission records. VA also asks for any supplemental records you have:

• statements from service medical personnel
• buddy statements or affidavits from fellow service members who saw your injury or illness
• military accident and police reports
• exam reports for employment or insurance
• letters or photographs from your time in service
• prescription records
• copies of records from private doctors or hospitals that treated you in service or shortly after

Name the gap, then fill it

"No service treatment records" can mean an incomplete download, treatment at a civilian hospital, records filed under another facility, a hospital stay filed separately, or no visit at all. Write down the exact missing item (for example, an emergency room note from a field exercise) and the holder you expect has it. If you never went to sick call, write that down too; it is a fact, not a gap.

Then give each other source one job. A unit or personnel record can place you at a duty station on a date. A civilian emergency record can show treatment and timing. A witness who saw the injury can describe it on VA Form 21-10210, the Lay/Witness Statement, and the free buddy letter builder helps a witness put down what they personally saw. The buddy letter guide shows what a strong statement includes.

Medical records from a retired doctor or closed practice

"The doctor retired" starts a records search; it does not end one. The chart may have gone to a successor practice, a hospital system, a storage vendor or the doctor's estate, or it may have been destroyed after the retention period ended. HHS says the HIPAA Privacy Rule does not set how long records must be kept; state laws generally do.

Where to look:

• The NPI Registry. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services runs the NPI Registry, where you can look up a clinician or group by name and state. A listing shows a practice location address, a mailing address and the date the listing was last updated.
• The state medical board. Its license lookup shows the doctor's status and address on file. Ask whether your state has rules on where a closing practice must send its records.
• A successor group, hospital or your current provider. A group that absorbed the practice may know where the charts went, and your current doctor may hold copies transferred into your chart.
• The estate, if the doctor died. Ask the last practice staff or the estate's personal representative who took custody of the charts.
• Your insurer's claims history. It can show visit dates, though not the clinical notes.

Once you find the holder, ask for specific records: visits in a date range, an imaging report, a test or the complete chart. Under HIPAA, a covered provider must act on your request within 30 days, with one extension of up to 30 days, and may charge only a reasonable, cost-based fee for copies (45 CFR 164.524). Confirm the recipient and its request steps before you send a Social Security number or a signed authorization. Adapt this wording:

I was a patient of [practice or provider] at [location] from about [month and year] to [month and year]. I am requesting a copy of [record types] for my own records. Please tell me whether you hold these records, your request and identity-verification steps, any fee, and how you will respond if the records are no longer available.

If you want VA to get private records for you

Authorize VA on VA Form 21-4142, with provider details on VA Form 21-4142a. Name the current holder of the records, not just the retired doctor's old office, plus the location and treatment dates. The form says not to fill it out for records you already provided or will get yourself, because doing so lengthens your claim processing time, and that the authorization is good for 12 months. The 21-4142 example walks through the form.

For private records, 38 CFR 3.159(c)(1) says VA's reasonable efforts generally mean an initial request and, if the records do not arrive, at least one follow-up. No follow-up is required if the first answer says the records do not exist. VA will not pay a custodian's fee. If VA still cannot get the records, it must send the notice described above.

If the search fails, get the answer in writing, or note the date, the person, the number and exactly what was said. "The vendor did not find a chart for the dates I gave" is more accurate than "all my records were destroyed." Then point VA to other evidence: later doctors' notes, imaging held elsewhere, pharmacy records, insurance claims or a person who saw your symptoms.

How to find evidence in your medical records

Search your records by question, not just by the condition's name. For each find, save the exact passage, the date, the source and the page.

1. What current condition is documented? Look in assessments, diagnoses, imaging, labs, sleep studies, nerve studies and specialist notes. Tell a confirmed diagnosis apart from a rule-out diagnosis, a history copied forward or a negative test.
2. What timeline appears? Look for the earliest reports, changes in symptoms, treatment gaps and later injuries. A note written in 2026 may describe earlier history, but it is still a 2026 record of what was reported.
3. What treatment and response are recorded? Medications, procedures, devices, therapy and follow-up can help show severity.
4. What functional effects are noted? Sleep problems, limits on walking or lifting, missed work, or restrictions a clinician ordered.
5. Does any clinician say what caused it? Treating clinicians sometimes write "secondary to," "due to" or "consistent with" in passing. Copy the exact words, the author and the date. A one-line remark is not a reasoned medical opinion, but it tells you which clinician already sees a connection and might explain it in writing. The nexus letter guide covers what a full opinion needs.

A diagnosis may appear as an abbreviation, an anatomical term, a test, a medication or a specialty clinic, so build a short list of search terms from your own records. A keyword hit is only a lead. Read the whole note around it: the author, the note type, the reason for the visit, the assessment, the plan and any later addendum. Keep nearby qualifying language and contrary findings, not just the sentence that helps.

Keep two kinds of evidence apart. 38 CFR 3.159(a) defines competent medical evidence as evidence from a person qualified to offer medical diagnoses, statements or opinions, and competent lay evidence as facts a person observed and can describe. One note can hold both: your report of symptoms and the clinician's findings. Label each one correctly.

Fictional example:

The last column keeps you from overstating what a passage proves. Raven Scan does this first pass across many PDFs at once: it lists documented conditions, symptoms and treatment with page references, and names the pages it could not read, so you know what still needs a manual check.

How to organize medical records for a VA claim

The goal is not one giant evidence PDF. It is a system that lets you find each source again: untouched source files, an inventory of those files, and an index of the passages that matter.

1. Keep the originals as received. Do not highlight, crop, reorder or rename the only copy. Annotate a working copy, and put the source date and provider in the file name, for example 2026-06-12-va-blue-button-full.pdf.
2. Build an inventory. Give each file a short ID and record its date range, page count, what it covers, unreadable pages and records you requested but have not received.
3. Index passages by condition and evidence role. Roles include current diagnosis, service event, symptom timeline, treatment, functional effect, medical connection and competing evidence.
4. Write both page numbers. Large exports often number pages differently, so write the PDF viewer page and the printed page when they differ: "PDF page 402, note page 3 of 5."
5. Keep a "not located" list. Write "not located in the files reviewed," not "the record does not exist." An export can be incomplete, and the exact wording helps when you ask for the missing piece.
6. Do not resubmit everything by default. For a compensation claim, VA makes efforts to get your relevant service records and VA medical records itself, as long as you tell it enough to find them (38 CFR 3.159(c)(3)). Send what VA does not have and what a request letter asks for. A file can be new to your folder without being new evidence to VA.

Fictional example of an inventory:

If you only want to know what one record says, the free document review explains one uploaded document with page references and lists what it leaves unanswered. It reviews one document per verified email, not a whole file.

Using AI tools with your VA medical records

A medical record can hold diagnoses, medications, identifiers and details about other people. VA says that if you print or download anything from its online tools, you take responsibility for protecting it. That responsibility goes with the file to any app you upload it to.

HIPAA covers health plans, health care clearinghouses, health care providers that send health information electronically for certain transactions such as billing, and their business associates (45 CFR 160.102). It does not attach to a document just because the document is medical, so whether an app is covered depends on the company and its arrangements, not on the file. Ask each tool, in writing:

• which companies process the file, including AI, text-recognition and hosting providers
• whether the original PDF, the extracted text and the results are each stored, and for how long
• whether any content is used to train models, under which terms
• who can see the content for support or review
• how to delete the file and the results, and what deletion does not remove
• which pages and formats it can read, and how it reports pages it could not read

Upload the minimum the question needs. A general question may need no upload, and a question about one sentence in a decision may need only that letter. Keep unaltered originals offline, and treat any AI finding as a lead to check in the original record, not a diagnosis, a medical opinion or a VA decision.

The same checklist applies to Claim Raven. Its AI vendor data FAQ lists which outside AI providers can receive content from each feature, including Raven Scan and Raven Cipher, and how long those providers may keep it. If you would rather not upload records anywhere, an accredited VSO can review them with you for free. For a general question without an upload, Ask Raven answers with citations you can open.

Questions about VA medical records

How do I get my VA medical records online?

Sign in to My HealtheVet on VA.gov with an identity-verified Login.gov or ID.me account and open the medical records section. You can review, print and download lab and test results, care notes and summaries, vaccines, allergies, vitals and health conditions. You need to be enrolled in VA health care and registered as a patient at a VA facility.

What is the VA Blue Button report?

It is a downloadable report in My HealtheVet that VA describes as one you customize by date range and type of information, such as lab results and progress notes. Check its date range: a download may not include every record VA holds.

How long does it take to get VA medical records?

VA says a request to your facility's Release of Information office can take up to 30 calendar days for records stored electronically and up to 60 calendar days for paper records, which are usually from before 1998. If it will take longer, VA mails you a letter.

What form do I use to request my VA medical records?

Use VA Form 10-5345a, Individuals' Request for a Copy of Their Own Health Information, and send it to your facility's medical records office. VA Form 10-5345 is different: it authorizes VA to release your health information to someone outside VA.

How do I request my C-file from VA?

Submit VA Form 20-10206 online with a verified Login.gov or ID.me account, by mail to the Evidence Intake Center in Janesville, Wisconsin, by fax, or in person at a VA regional office. Choose the claims file (C-file). VA waives the copying fee for one complete set of your own benefit records.

Is my C-file the same as my VA medical records?

No. The C-file is VA's claims file, kept by the Veterans Benefits Administration. Your VA medical records are kept by your VA health facility. A C-file can include VA treatment records used in a decision, but it is not a complete copy of your chart.

How do I get my service treatment records?

It depends on your branch and separation date. Records from about 1992 to 2013 generally went to VA, records from 2014 on stay with your service's records center, and older records went to the National Personnel Records Center. You do not need them before filing; VA requests them after you file a claim.

What happens if VA can't find my service treatment records?

VA must keep requesting federal records until it concludes they do not exist or more requests would be futile. Then it must send a notice naming the missing records, what it tried and what it will do next. The missing records cannot, by themselves, make your lay evidence not credible.

Can VA get my private medical records for me?

Yes. Authorize VA on VA Form 21-4142, with provider details on Form 21-4142a, and name the current holder of the records. VA generally makes an initial request and at least one follow-up, and it will not pay a custodian's fee. If you already have the records, upload them yourself instead.

Is it safe to upload my VA medical records to an AI tool?

It depends on the tool, and a label like "secure" does not answer it. Ask who processes the file, what is stored and for how long, whether it is used for training, who can see it, and how to delete it. Upload only what your question needs.

Sources

Checked October 6, 2026.

• VA, Review medical records online (last updated June 12, 2026): My HealtheVet eligibility, the download responsibility note, help desk hours
• VA, About reviewing medical records online (last updated June 25, 2026): what the medical records section holds, the "Download your medical records reports" area
• VA, My HealtheVet on VA.gov: What to know (last updated September 24, 2026): facilities that used the My VA Health portal
• Veterans Health Administration, My HealtheVet Is Moving on June 4, 2025 (May 20, 2025): the move to VA.gov and Blue Button report changes; VA Connected Care, Get Your VA Health Information Online (undated flyer): how the Blue Button report is customized
• VA, How to get your medical records from your VA health facility (last updated July 9, 2026): request routes and processing times
• VA, VA Form 10-5345a and VA Form 10-5345
• VA, Personal records request form, VA Form 20-10206 (last updated July 7, 2026), the online request tool and the form's instructions
• VA Privacy Service, Privacy Act Requests (last updated September 30, 2026): VBA and VHA access requests and amendments
• VA, VA claim exam (C&P exam): requesting the final exam report
• VA, Request your military service records (last updated August 12, 2026) and Reconstruct military records destroyed in NPRC fire
• National Archives, Veterans' Medical and Health Records, Request Military Service Records, Access to OMPF and The 1973 Fire
• VA, VA Form 21-4142 (last updated October 1, 2026) and the August 2024 form; VA Form 21-10210
• VA, Get help from a VA accredited representative: VSO help is free
• M21-1, Part II, Subpart ii, 1.A (eFolder); Part III, Subpart ii, 1.A (final notification letters) and 2.B (service treatment records from HAIMS); Part V, Subpart ii, 2.A (direct service connection); Part V, Subpart iv, 1.A (rating decisions)
• 38 CFR 1.577, 3.159 and 3.304; 45 CFR 160.102 and 164.524 (eCFR, October 1, 2026)
• Coburn v. Nicholson, No. 03-1345 (Vet. App. January 26, 2006); Buchanan v. Nicholson, 451 F.3d 1331 (Fed. Cir. 2006)
• HHS, Does HIPAA require covered entities to keep medical records for any period of time?; CMS, NPI Registry

Claim Raven is not a law firm, a VSO or an accredited representative, and this guide is not legal advice. For help with your claim, talk to an accredited representative.