DIY Records

One of the hot topics in information science right now is the development of personal health records -- essentially, a set of medical records that you, as an individual, keep yourself. The info-science side of this is trying to create systems that make this easy to do.

I'm now a big cheerleader for this idea, because it's not clear that the doctors' offices are getting it right.

Exhibit 1: A while back, I received an insurance statement for a doctor visit that I hadn't made, and vaccinations that I had not received. (There's a new vaccine out for HPV, human papilloma virus. HPV can lead to cervical cancer. So, the vaccine is a wonderful idea that will likely save lives, but it's recommended for girls and women ages 9 to 26. I do not fall into that age range. I didn't get the shot. But they think I did.) I called up the office and told them that there was a mistake, and they told me they'd look into it and get back to me. They never got back to me.

Then, last week, I received a check from the doctor's office, for overpayment. I'm not usually one to look a gift check in the mouth, but since I never paid anything but copays at that doctor (and I've only been there a couple of times anyhow), it was hard for me to imagine how I could have overpaid. I called them up again to try to figure out what the overpayment was for and explain that I thought it was a mistake, but I couldn't get any other info out of their office ("It's from last year." "It's an overpayment.") In fact, I think the woman on the other end of the phone thought I was a little crazy to be questioning the fact that some money arrived in the mail.

(I know there's at least one other person with my same first and last name at my university, so I suspect they somehow got our records mixed up. At some point I should probably go down there and talk to someone, but I haven't done it yet.)

Exhibit 2: I was going to see a new doctor (don't worry, I'm not sick; sometimes people just change doctors), so I needed to bring my medical records from my old doctor. Turns out that this is an enormous hassle. I had to go to the office and fill out a form. Then they called me because they had given me wrong information about what to put on the form in order to pick up the records myself, so I had to go back again and fill the form out again. Then they have some medical records company that comes in once a week to fulfill these requests. This company then sends a bill which must be paid before the records can be released. And no, you can't pay in advance, you have to wait for it to arrive in the mail.

After jumping through all of those hoops, I went back to pick up my records the day before my appointment at the new doctor (more than a week after the original request). I show up and they say, oh, no, there's been a miscommunication, you can't pick up your records here, the medical records company is going to mail your records from Georgia. At this point a touch of hysteria enters my voice and I tell them that I need the records for an appointment THE NEXT DAY, which was CLEARLY NOTED when I filled out the paperwork. So the records person goes in the back, and (I assume) just prints my records off from the computer (which is what they should just do in the damn first place -- I'd have no problem paying for the copying costs or whatever). I get the records and leave, but then when I looked at them, it turns out that although there's a record of appointments, etc., they've left out the most important part -- results of bloodwork and lab tests (cholesterol, hormone levels, pap tests, etc. -- routine stuff, but ones I'd prefer not to have to repeat just because I'm going to a new office). So I go back to the office again, and wait around again, and they print out what they have, but it's still not complete. Ugh! Fortunately, I already had copies of some of the information they didn't include.

So, from now on, I'm going to try to do better at keeping track of this stuff myself!