Medical care providers who are subject to state or federal regulation, including Medicare/Medicaid Conditions of Participation, must allow inspectors from these programs access to their medical records. These inspectors may view the entire record, including the patient identifiers, without the permission of the patients. This is justified under the police powers as a reasonable intrusion based on a greater societal need, the same legal basis as that used for requiring patient information to be reported for various statistical and disease control purposes (see public health reporting ). State medical care practitioner licensing agencies have the right to inspect medical records under certain circumstances.