Medical Records Retrieval Information | Patient Resources | MedicalRecords.com

Access to patient medical records is guaranteed under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) of 1996. Under this legislation, you may request a copy of  your personal medical records, including diagnostic images, at anytime from your health care provider and it must be provided within 30 days. Healthcare providers may charge “reasonable fees” to make these copies and provide them to you. Obtaining medical records is as simple as making a written request to your doctor in the form of a medical records request. More information on how to obtain your own medical records is found here.

While the process of requesting your medical records appears relatively straightforward, for those with complex healthcare histories who have been treated by multiple healthcare providers, it might be preferred to use a third party medical records retrieval service. These services require that you sign a release form allowing them to process your medical records, and then gather all of your healthcare records for you and make them accessible online or by mailing you paper copies or a CD containing images of your records. There are typically fees for each health care provider contacted, as well as for copies of paper reports and for diagnostic images. These service fees are in addition to the reasonable fees that each health care provider may charge for copies of medical records.

Often, health care providers will use outside third party services to respond to patient or other requests for medical records in order to save time. Medical records retrieval companies typically process and verify the request forms, and then perform copying on site of the health care provider in a manner that complies with HIPAA.

There are also may be situations where you want to access another person’s medical records for insurance or legal purposes, such as in the case of reviewing benefits coverage and payments, in a lawsuit, or during the settlement of the estate of a deceased person. While you can do so yourself if you obtain properly executed legal forms and comply with all regulations and laws, many find it easier to use a specialty medical records retrieval service.

In addition to insurance companies (which also utilize The Medical Information Bureau to access medical records information), medical device companies, pharmaceutical companies, regulatory agencies like the US Food & Drug Administration (FDA), self-insured employers (those that underwrite their own health insurance), and law firms may retrieve third party medical records, and typically use specialty service providers to do this, as well.

Takeaways

HIPAA gives you the right to request and receive copies of your medical records for a “reasonable fee.”

You may also request that medical records retrieval companies do this for you, and that may be easier if you have been treated by many health care providers. These service firms charge additional fees.

There are many other insurance and legal related reasons for individuals and companies to retrieve third party medical records. These medical records retrieval companies will gather information in a HIPAA compliant fashion.