Reader Kimberley Dahline of Finally Filed helps patients and caregivers keep track of their paperwork. She wrote in two weeks ago asking about how I keep track of mine (not just when I'm proud of my labs and pin them to the wall of my office cubicle.). Last week, we covered billing paperwork. This week we are talking about medical records.
Care Coordination
This is for when you have multiple providers who may not have anything to do with each other, but you need someone besides yourself who knows the whole story. Sadly, this one is on us, too.
Step 1. Coordinate visits for your convenience. I have a dozen providers, many of whom require different sets of labs. In order not to get stuck like a pincushion more than necessary, I coordinate them. I schedule all the appointments within a week or so of each other, and I ask for future lab orders so I can get them all done at once and so that all of my doctors will be able to see all the most recent results. I keep the orders in my car in an effort not to lose them over the three to six months between visits, but the front desk staff has gotten used to me calling to have them sent again.
Step 2. Get a General Practitioner (GP)/Internist. I shamelessly use mine as the ringleader in my circus. Everyone with multiple providers should have a ringleader – someone who has a bird’s eye view of all of your records. For him to be effective, I have to sign a release form telling the lab company and other providers’ offices to forward all results and notes to him.
I know what you are thinking. Another doctor? Really?
Once I didn’t think I needed a GP, either. But my endocrinologist (diabetes doctor) was tired of treating every sniffle and wound, so he sent me to his. I waited so long that the recommended GP retired, so I made an appointment with his replacement, who happened to be so good that I will travel across two states and the District of Columbia for my annual physical. Once, when I had an incident at work, I called my GP, who was able to look at all of my records and see that I had forgotten to tell my nephrologist (kidney doctor) that I’d had asthma when I was a child. It had been several years since I had been treated for it and I didn’t realize that it was still relevant. The nephrologist had prescribed beta blockers for hypertension, which had caused severe bronchoconstriction (constriction of the airways in my lungs) as the dose increased. My GP was able to look at the entire chart and tell me to stop taking the beta blockers immediately. The emergency room I’d gone to diagnosed it as a “cardiac incident” and let me go without changing my medication.
Step 3. Proactive paperwork. Doctors' offices and labs will not offer you a Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)-compliant records release form. (Learn more about the importance of HIPAA here). They usually have one, but you have to ask for it. If you do it this way, it's an annual process, like when you have to show proof of insurance every year.
Sometimes it’s just easier to fill out a standard online form on your own and carry it with you to new providers. You can find one here. On this form, check field 2, option 2 to designate an unlimited period of records release. You can add to, delete, or reword any section to suit your needs, just be sure to initial any changes you make. Also be sure to keep copies for your records in order to get what you want while legally protecting all parties.
Tips and Tricks
There aren’t many tips and tricks for this one. More like one tip and one trick.
· Make friends with the front office staff. I can’t tell you how many times, and in how many offices, these folks have made the difference on a short timeline or even getting my request addressed at all. This includes the offices where I have a direct line to the doctor through access to email, cell phone, and/or text.
· If you get pushback from your provider, be firm. Tell them that you need someone who can see the whole picture, including those things that may not be related to your chronic condition. As mentioned above, drug interactions area good example of that kind of situation. And if there is still pushback, tell your provider that you are perfectly willing to use them as the repository for ALL of your information, and to see them as you would a GP -- for every sniffle, cough, and boo boo. This is usually a fairly good deterrent.