Getting Medical Notes, Etc. from Doctor - Advice Needed

[Guest guest]

Hello all, I have been having problems getting medical information

from my neurologist in a timely manner. By " medical information " I am

referring to medical notes needed by my disability insurance company

to keep my benefits (very important!), a document needed by my health

insurance company related to the power chair HE prescribed, and

additional info/notes needed from my doctor. I have had similar

problems with other needed papers, so these are not isolated incidents.

To better explain the severity of the problem, the information needed

from my disability insurer was originally requested in early November

2005 and numerous times since then, the doctor finally released the

info in early February. But this was only after 20+ calls by me to

his office and repeated messages to the office administrator and

several calls and faxes from the insurer. Similarly I have called

about the power chair letter and it has still not been released.

I feel these are important matters and I believe that I already have

enough stress dealing with my CMT and my recent string of ongoing

surgeries (mostly foot surgeries). But I am concerned that if I

changed neurologists, I may have the same problems (or worse) with the

new doctor. I doubt that I can call other neurologist's offices and

ask how fast they process this type of paperwork and get a completely

honest answer (from the Dr. office).

Any help is greatly appreciated.

-Rob

[Guest guest]

Rob,

If you are in the USA, ask someone at the doctor's office to send

you their records release form that is YOUR right under HIPAA.

Remember signing that you received their HIPAA information? They

are required to have had you sign for it... and the HIPAA law

REQUIRES them to release the information to you. I just went

through this process before my son went to Mayo, and I KNOW how

frustrating it can be. However, I learned

1) That saying " HIPAA " gets attention since no doctor's office

wants to get in trouble by breaking federal law.

2) Try to use THEIR form. Silly I know, but I found that this

speeded things up enormously (even if I had typed the exact same

thing).

3) If you have ANY doctor that you trust, ask to have the records

released to that doctor rather than yourself and have that doctor

copy them for you. In our case, there was a delay in trying to have

it sent directly to us, because many offices charge for this but

don't charge for sending it to doctors offices. The law allows them

to do this if they call it " copying " fees or some such thing.

BUT, IT CAN BE DONE. Hang in there!

Barbara

[Guest guest]

Barbara,

Thanks for the info. I will be studying up on HIPAA and how I can use

it to my benefit. I have already signed releases.

Rob