; and (ii) use or disclose protected health information as required by section 164.502(a)(2) of title 45, Code of Federal Regulations. (B) Additional authority (i) A health care clearinghouse shall be permitted to provide an individual or the personal representative of such individual access to the protected health information of such individual as described in subsection (d). (ii) All covered entities, including a health care clearinghouse, shall, subject to subsection (c)(2), be permitted to— (I) on behalf of covered entities, use and disclose protected health information for health care operations purposes (as defined by section 164.501 of title 45, Code of Federal Regulations) without respect to whether the recipient of the information has or had a relationship with the individual; (II) upon the request of a covered entity, benchmark (as defined by the Secretary pursuant to rulemaking) the operations of such covered entity against the operations of one or more other covered entities that have elected to participate in such bench­mark­ing