Even if one were to set aside compliance, security and privacy regulations, record retrieval is a time-consuming and tedious task. Litigation and claims professionals already are often overworked and stretched just focusing on their responsibilities required to adjudicate claims effectively without adding the time and tedium of requesting records. In requesting records the saying “Time is Money” has never been more meaningful.

According to reputable industry surveys, the average personal injury case requires record retrieval from nine separate healthcare facilities. If you have ten concurrent cases, that is ninety separate medical records requests to actively monitor and follow-up with, to ensure records are retrieved prior to mandated deadlines. On top of this, records must be organized evaluated and stored and secured upon receipt.

The HITECH Medical Act:

In 2009, the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH Act) was implemented. This federal legislation mandates the ability for individuals to get detailed, accurate medical records in electronic format at a significantly reduced cost than most state regulated medical record costs. In fact, the charges allowed are $6.50 per record or limited to the labor cost associated with releasing the electronic record.

How do HITECH and HIPPA affect one another?

HIPAA is focused on the administrative provisions, patient privacy rights, and security controls for health and medical records and other forms of protected health information (PHI). The HITECH Act augments those rights to include the option of requesting electronic copies of health and medical records when available eliminating the often expensive state regulated per page costs. In other words, HITECH assures the patient’s right to access their own health information at an affordable cost.

HITECH is a Patient Right

Understanding the details of the regulation is a critical piece in the process. Here are a few critical things to consider:

• The patient specifically must ask in written form to release records under HITECH
• The patient has the right to designate receipt of records to a 3rd party
• A personal HITECH Directive Letter is required

The T-Scan HD Program for Medical Retrieval

T-Scan’s extensive knowledge regarding HIPAA, HITECH and jurisdictional regulations throughout the country makes our service a true expert-partner to our clients and their clients. T-Scan developed the T-Scan HD Program to fulfill one central purpose: provide a retrieval experience that reduces record retrieval spend and ensures providers fulfill the patient’s right to access the record affordably during a claims or litigation process just when it is needed the most. It should not be cost prohibitive to secure the information needed to evaluate a case or claim. T-Scan helps to make compliance simple, affordable and efficient. There is no doubt about it, "Time is Money" and with the HD program, T-Scan assures that you and your client saves time and money during the process. If you would like to learn more please feel free to contact us for more information.