Don’t Be Scared of Medical Record Retrieval

Do you know the ins and outs of performing a medical record search? Are you worried about doing everything right if you try to take it on by yourself?

Even as an injury case specialist, it’s unlikely that you are prepared to deal with the particulars of filing a document search for your client’s patient records. Where do you even start?

You need the proof of the treatment that your client received after an injury or accident, but you know far more about the laws you will be arguing than the health care system.

You could pay in-house to have an intern or assistant track down each provider, from emergency services to the physical therapist your client saw during recovery, but that is a long and slow process. Why waste their time and your money when they don’t have the expertise necessary to get the job done?

It may be worth it for you to bring in a third party who specializes in medical record retrieval. There are companies out there that do this as their main form of business, and they have a track record of delivering results. Keep reading for four reasons why you should look into hiring someone to do medical record retrieval for you.

These companies handle medical record retrieval on a regular basis. They know exactly what they want and how to ask for it, and they will deliver results when you need them.

When you get the records from a company that does the medical record retrieval, sometimes they will already be chronologically coherent for you. You save even more time this way because not only do you not have to search for the records on your own, but also you know exactly where to look for the dates of treatment.  You don’t need to try and figure out where the records are hiding.

You don’t need to search through every physical and lab test in your client’s medical history when you are searching for information to execute their injury case. You only need to see the procedures related to treatment of the effects caused by the accident, but how do you know what you’re looking for?

You need to have someone skilled in medical record retrieval to get the data for you, otherwise you may end up with that entire history mentioned before as a stack of papers you have to comb for details, and it’s just more clutter that is taking up space in your office.

Using a company specialized in medical record retrieval will let you to focus on only what you need to properly argue your client’s case.

Companies that do medical record retrieval have fees for their services. Everyone in business does, but the requests should have some consistent fees so you can decide what to pay for upfront and get what you need.

In addition to flat, fixed rates for the copies of medical records and digitized copies of the documents, you are paying for a service performed for one person, one time: the client with whom you are working.  You don’t need to pay for someone in your office who is learning as they go and may be making mistakes because they are unfamiliar with the process, the terminology, and the outcome they want to achieve from the record search.

Sometimes you can save money by performing actions and duties with the staff you have in-house, but medical record retrieval is a field complicated enough that some people have made their careers on it.  When you need this kind of complex documentation, it is worth paying for an external company with experience to handle it for you.

You have a staff specialized in the tasks of maintaining a law office, not searching medical records. When you work with experts in medical record retrieval, you can count on the fact that they have done this many times, and they know what they are looking for at the providers’ facilities. They will get answers for you when you need them, without having to have long email exchanges about the request. 

If you are really in a hurry, look for a company who offers the ability to search documents digitally as part of their package for medical record retrieval. You won’t have to look through paper records in your office, and you can use keywords to help you.

Using a service to gather the records for you will be very useful when you need to access the records. Your requests can be identified with a series of unique numbers and organized in one place. You can access these files with either a single login, or have permissions on multiple accounts so only the people who need access can get in.

It is highly recommended to hire a medical billing and reimbursement expert to determine and testify to the reasonable value of medical service. The provider’s location can affect these costs and reimbursements.

Whether you are a plaintiff or a defendant in a case, o ne of the most important items in Automobile, Personal Injury, and Medical Malpractice cases is the cost of medical bills. Figuring out medical costs can be complicated, and expert guidance is critical to ensuring you have a clear understanding of what is “fair and reasonable” with regards to the finances involved in your medical care.

Medical Billing Analysts offers litigation support services nationwide, with offices in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Florida, Texas, Nevada & California. Medical Billing Analysts represent both defendants and plaintiffs with regard to improper medical billing and coding.

The team of MBA professionals will review the hospital, medical and therapy bills to determine the value of past medical expenses, and based on local CPT codes they can also perform a Cost Projection Analysis of future costs.   Through meticulous analysis, we can justify the reasonable cost of services which assists in resolving the case.

Contact Medical Billing Analysts by phone or email at 800-292-1919 or intake@medicalbillinganalysts.com . We’re here for you, whether you need an evaluation of a single charge or a complex injury case.