Is there some trick to having medical records sent from one office to another?

[Anselm]

In every state the healthcare provider tells me that they charge money to give me the records  but not to have them forwarded to another healthcare provider.   I tell them the name of the doctor and they say "oh yes, we know him.  We work with him all of the time."  Then when I visit the new doctor I am told that they don't have the records.  This has happened 5 times in 3 states.  Is this only me?  Am I doing something wrong?  This just happened again when I tried to get CPAP supplies from a medical supply store.  They need lots of info to get things covered by insurance.  The person working at the sleep specialist office said she would send things over right away.  Two hours later the medical supply store tells me they have nothing.  I gave up and left on vacation.   I can buy the stuff online and pay out of pocket.  It is just the whole principle of the thing. 

Without getting visible hostile and creating an ugly scene, what can I do to make sure records get from point A to point B and not get ignored or thrown away at point B?  I suspect that might have been the case as  a new patient in the past where they don't know who I am. 

[spork]

When someone says "we'll send it," get the person's name and phone extension. At your next appointment, if the records haven't been delivered, call and say "I'm in my appointment with Dr. So-and-So. We are wondering where you sent the records to and on what date. Dr. So-and-so's office doesn't have anything." If you don't get the response you want, work your way up the chain.

I'm actually not joking. I now have accounts on four different "patient portals," none of which communicate with each other. I have started taking my laptop into exam rooms so that I can show physicians information that they haven't seen. I'm tired of faxing twenty pages of reports and lab test results from one medical practice to another; it's someone else's job that I don't get paid to do, but the people who are supposed to do it aren't reliable.

[reener06]

What Spork said. I spent my high school working front desk at a doctor's office (pediatrician) and then the summer before college doing preliminary physicals on 3, 4 and 5 year olds primarily, but also students heading to college. We were inundated with forms starting in June, and it got much worse in July and August, as no one could start school without those forms. So there is that. On top of this, most moves occur in the summer. Copying or scanning records is an odious task, and to protect the doctor the originals have to stay with the doctor. Sometimes they are in a warehouse. Yeah, I know, this was all 30 years ago, but I'm surprised how few doctors have moved to electronic records and still use paper.

In addition, I have a chronic medical condition and have moved 13 times since graduating college. I've got copies of many of my records but have learned to take people's names when they say it will be sent, and follow-up when they aren't. Working in any doctor's office is not a great job. The pay is low, the doctors often think they are descended from God, and the insurance paperwork and liability paperwork is a nightmare. A good doctor's office hangs on to its good people who get the stuff done. Lots of turnover tells me the doctor doesn't treat their staff well, and hires not very good staff.

[mamselle]

+1 (having worked in hospitals and doctors' specialty office.

With two corrections, most (especially surgeons; I saw one throw a chair across the waiting room because someone was sitting in his favorite spot near the printer) would just drop the "descended from" part...

And then there's the occasional gem of a surgeon who stood next to me and handed me sections of the records binder when his patient had to be heli-lifted to the main hospital across town for an emergency procedure.

Add in cranky copiers, slow repair people, and new staff, and it's hard.

So follow-through is a favor to them as well as you. Be empathic---"I know you must have a lot of these to do," when you call. Have any info on the original request (your patient no., ins. co., copy of email forwarded with you reminder, FEDEX tracking no. if your MD sent a STAT request with a return mailer, etc.) as well.

The fewer steps they have to take between "locate, copy, send, confirm, " the better.

If there will be al longstanding need, a short, polite thank you, and a small box of chocolates after the first successful, timely copying procedure will be most appreciated, too.

M.

[octoprof]

For dealing with the current problem, just keep calling every day until they send the records just to get you to stop calling. Been there, done that.

Going forward, every time you see a doctor, ask for all the records of that visit, including copies of test results. If you have online access to records, print them to PDFs. Then, when you need records quickly for next new doc, you can just download and/or print all that and send it/take it to the new doctor. Been there, done that.

[Anselm]

Reener,

The proper expression is that doctors think that they are a being than which nothing greater can be conceived.

Here is what is so frustrating for me.  I have done thousands of online transactions with purchases and paying bills.  It always works.  The finance and retail people have figured out how to make online financial transactions mostly flawless and easy.   

I was not aware of the big rush for documents from students.  My anger has now been reduced by about 10%.   

[InfoPri]

I live in two different states and have multiple chronic medical issues, so in addition to having two PCPs and a gynecologist (may he never retire!), I have two dentists, two rheumatologists, a cardiologist, a proctologist (who did retire, so I need to find a new one), an anesthesiologist/pain specialist, a podiatrist (also retired, but I haven't needed him for a few years), and whoever else I'm forgetting.  They all need full records, especially because I take more than a dozen daily medications and am allergic to certain drugs (one of which almost killed me before we discovered the allergy).  I have given all the permissions required under the HIPAA regulations, I belong to one state's electronic network (allows participating doctors access to a large portion--but by no means all--of my electronic medical records created within that state), and I have asked Physician A to send specific (or all) records to Physician B (regardless of state).

Almost none of the records are ever where they need to be when I arrive at that day's "Physician B."

Therefore, I now have a big cardboard box containing all of my medical records (to the extent that I can get my hands on them), including disks with all scans (X-rays, MRIs, CTs, etc.), and I select and copy whatever I need for each doctor's visit.  It's the only way I can ensure that each doctor has all the necessary current information.  Yes, it's as big a logistical hassle as it sounds--but it's much easier than the nightmare of trying to get the various offices to do the job.

[glowdart]

I've found that this has gotten worse as practices all merge with each other. No longer can you hand a request to a person — you have to fill out forms repeatedly and call regularly. I've been putting off a referral to a specialist for years because I can't get my GP's office to release visit notes to the specialist, and the specialist won't see new patients without an extensive pre-screening of visit notes — which I can't get on the patient view.

[octoprof]

I've found that this has gotten worse as practices all merge with each other. No longer can you hand a request to a person — you have to fill out forms repeatedly and call regularly. I've been putting off a referral to a specialist for years because I can't get my GP's office to release visit notes to the specialist, and the specialist won't see new patients without an extensive pre-screening of visit notes — which I can't get on the patient view.

I tried about 10 times to have some of my records send from previous state to current state. All for naught. The best plan is to keep copies (even if scanned ones) of every result and so forth. Then print out the pile to give to your new doc.

My experience is much like InfoPri's but I don't have quite as many regular docs as she has. Even in the same city they often don't communicate with one another, which I find really annoying. My PCP, at least, should know everything that is going on at any specialists' offices with regard to me.

[Anselm]

Oh, it has gotten worse.  The medical supply store won't bill my insurance for supplies unless they have a long list of records from the doctor which includes the original sleep study.  They contacted the sleep clinic at the hospital and were told that they don't have records going back more than 10 years.  I never knew this was possible.

[octoprof]

Oh, it has gotten worse.  The medical supply store won't bill my insurance for supplies unless they have a long list of records from the doctor which includes the original sleep study.  They contacted the sleep clinic at the hospital and were told that they don't have records going back more than 10 years.  I never knew this was possible.

They should be able to bill the insurance based on the original order from the doctor for the CPAP or whatever in the first place which clearly someone received if you already have the medical device and have been using it all these years. Ugh.

The number of years records must be kept varies by state, though. We learned this only when we needed to get Mr. Wonderful's previous pathology results from the early aughts and the leftover block of biopsy back in 2012. It had NOT been 10 years (the length of time the block must be kept in the state in which it was tested) so they had to cough it up eventually and it proved that he had the cancer many years before and the tests had been botched (which was only good for helping us figure out why he got to that stage of cancer without going through the earlier stages, but it was useful for the oncologists to know that).