Steps to help you collect and maintain your health care records
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- Keep a simple list of your visits to doctors and what transpires.
- Keep a record of vaccinations, tetanus,and routine procedures.
- Make a list of current and past medications and how you react to each.
- Record any allergic reactions to food, medications, plants and any known
allergens.
- Request from your doctors, clinics, emergency rooms, or any professional that you
contract with for health care services for copies of any and all information that is
part of your health care record.
- Always ask for a copy of any form that you sign at any medical office. You maybe
pressured into signing documents at check in and you may feel obliged. Take the
copy home and review it. If there is any aspect you disagree with or refute, you
can write the objection on a copy of the form and send it back to them, they are
obligated to keep it as part of your record, in turn keep a dated copy as well.
- If anyone that is responsible for providing your information refuses to help you, or
informs you that they need to refer you to a supervisor, make sure you get their
name and title. Often it is merely an inconvenience to "pull your chart and copy
the chart." You can call the legal department of most hospitals and complain and
seek help. They may try to prevent you from obtaining your records by telling you
there is a copy fee, remind them that you or your insurance has paid them for their
services and you are merely requesting the documentation you are entitled to for
the services rendered. Keep track of your inconvenience and inform them that
they are in violation of HIPAA if they do not comply with a simple request for your
documentation.
- Always keep a log of who and when you talk with someone concerning your
information. It may make a great deal of difference. Most medical institutions are
in chaos over health care issues and interpreting the HIPAA regulations. By being
familiar with the Patient Bill of Rights-the Federal Version, not the watered down
version hospitals are developing to protect themselves and cloud issues, you can
maintain your rights and others as well.
- Print out the HonestMed HIPAA release form and fill it out and send it to your
doctors requesting these records.
Updated 05/12/08
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