The first step in almost every personal injury case is to obtain copies of all your medical documents. This step is particularly important in medical malpractice cases where you have your medical records of the critical evidence in your case. (There is a saying in medmal ... "If it is not prescribed, it will not happen). This task should be easy, after all, what you are entitled, a complete copy of your medical records see right? Unfortunately, it is not. I amWriting of this article with the advantage of having defended hospitals and nursing homes in the beginning of my career with one of the most prestigious medical malpractice law firms in Atlanta, I know firsthand how it done right and what can go wrong.
Know Your Rights
You have spoken the law, named after the federal HIPAA ( "hippa" and stands for Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) to view, copy, modify, and even your own health information.This law also protects the privacy of your health information. The chances are you have a long form signed by your doctor, explaining how your doctor is the protection and / or the exchange of information your health. Most have health care providers follow HIPAA and state privacy laws. They generally have the right to:
Copy the lake and the Medical Record. The plant usually has the record within 30 days of the request. I recommend you to document your request inwriting. The easiest way is to ask the vendor, to tell you their form or their particular procedures. In Georgia, your provider is allowed to charge you for copying your records. From 1 July 2005, you can be charged 93 ¢ per page for the first 20 pages, 80 ¢ for the next 80 pages and 63 ¢ for each page after 101.Correct Your Medical Record, otherwise known as the right to amend your medical record. Under HIPAA, can you ask them to change incorrect information ormissing information. If the provider rejects your application you will have the right to a brief statement to your file that your position for which you request.If your health provider does not honor any of the above states' rights to enter, you can check the filing of a complaint with Office of Civil Rights, Health and Human Services and / or your state board (s) responsible for the certification of physicians and medical facilities in Georgia, they are the composite board of medical examinersand the Georgia Department of Human Resources.
First Records When Things Go Wrong
Unfortunately, the doctor or hospital will know before you do not realize they made a mistake. Hospitals and other medical facilities have a whole department to deal known as Risk Management, with their mistakes. Risk management is generally document the incident and then flag your file. This means that when a record in the request, they immediately think litigation is. I would like toBenefit of the doubt to doctors and hospitals when it comes to full disclosure, but my experience has taught me better. I never saw deliberate denial of medical records when I was on the defense of the personal side of an action for injury, but that does not mean that it does not happen or that it is not the hospitals and lawyers, the stone wall.
What I saw was an alarmingly high rate of missing documentation, especially in cases of nursing home. Much credit is to my former law firm, wherewe thought we would be missing records, a team of lawyers and paralegals to send to all other patients by diagrams misfiled records, we found routinely. It is for you and your lawyer to apply strategic pressure to force the defense and the hospital to spend time and resources to find the document. They are also not to do it if you do not force them.
A further harassment of medical records is "Wrecking" charts. I know some lawyers whoMix up the pages in the force diagram of a person on the other side, go side-by-side in order to reorganize the table. I have read, including reports of bodies blackout, fade, extension or shortening of copied records to obtain information in the dark.
If you are reading this because you are afraid, are you or a family member, can the victims of medical malpractice, you need a lawyer ASAP. Time is your enemy. There are limitation periods, to avoid your claim if you wait too long,something that the perpetrators want them to do you. You definitely need a lawyer's notes on his letterhead and in particular, who has certified the experience or the staff (ie nurses) to organize and review the documents quickly determine what is missing request. The average person simply does not know what is in their medical chart will be or how to cross-reference the documents in its table to determine the missing information.
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