Joseph's request today about the best way to print and send a patient's chart came on the same day that my office manager told me an interesting story that I want to share.
While I do not have a definitive answer to his question (for now I will leave it to Mark@AC to reply), one can take a little sting out of the process.
This is the season for HEDIS chart requests from insurance companies. Unless you are contractually obligated (which is rarely the case) YOU SHOULD ALWAYS CHARGE TO PROVIDE COPIES OF THESE RECORDS.
Requests from patients and other docs is different - handle those as you choose. But when a company calls for records - usually it is NOT an insurance company, but rather a company paid by the insurance company - be sure to quote a price and get paid before you send them.
So we got a request from a company for Aetna patient charts. My secretary quoted a rate of $25/chart. They asked for 48 charts, which is a big number (at least for us). After a couple weeks, the company called and said "we are not a lawyer or patient or doctor's office, so will you reduce your fee?". My office manager asked "reduce it to what?". After a brief pause, the rep said "will you do it for free". After stifling a laugh, my manager said "No, we don't see patients for free and we don't do paperwork for insurance companies for free either". (The latter is not true, of course... but anyway....). The person said "I will get back to you".
She called later and said "will you accept $20 a chart?" and my manager agreed.
So as soon as we get the check for $960, we will send the 48 charts.
Again... it is still work, and still irritating, but better to do it for $960 than to do it for free and seethe about it.
