What do you do when a Hospital refuses to release your own Medical Records?

HIPAA covers just this issue, according to HIPAA, the hospital has 30 days to comply with a request for records, they can get a 30 day extension, but generally that's about it, they can charge a nominal fee for the copies.

http://www.privacyrights.org/fs/fs8a-hip...

If they fail to comply, file a complaint

http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/privacy/hipaa/com...

I hear this more and more often. I *think* we've been hoodwinked somewhere along the line, but I can't figure out where.

First, you can go to another doctor, outside of that area's control, and have them request your records. By law, they MUST send a copy to this new doctor. Then, all you have to do it get it from him. :) If you go to the right doctor, a specialist in that ill, you won't really need a copy yourself, but you SHOULD have one. Doctors, like everyone else, can put things in or remove them, illegally, and mess up your care. One hospital I know if so incompetent that they have risked the lives of dozens of people by poor care, and they can't even include the facts in the records so that others can see the problem. In this case, it is all about $$$.

You could hire a lawyer, but that costs $$$ and you still have no proof you will get the records. I have seen more than a few lawyers/attorneys turn over on their clients to help the other side. They really are low when it comes to money.

Otherwise, you can play this game until you die, which is probably what they want. I honestly think that some places try this tactic in hopes that you will either give up or die, and they can forget whatever it is they are hiding. And, after having worked in a hospital with "problems," whatever they are hiding could be anything from racial remarks to misdiagnosis that could cost them millions in malpractice suits. Sometimes your 'secure' records are open access for anyone who works at the hospital and can use a computer.

Wish you the best. I've been there myself, and finally gave up. But, my whole area is controlled by the same group and there is no escape but to leave the state.

Contrary to the 2 other commentators U don't need to see another doctor. U have the right to receive your medical records. You may have to pay copying fees, no more than $25/page in advance. However, unless U R mentally ill they owe U those records within 15 days in CA. Read CA Health and Safety code 123110. Its state law. Otherwise file a complaint with the State Bd of Medicine, HHS Dept of Civil Rights etc...

Go to another Ophthalmologist and ask for a second opinion consult - Stanford has to give the new doctor your records.

What do you do when they refuse to release your mental health records? And when the police lied and said that you called a suicide hotline, but all you did was email (note the word "email" not "telephone" ) the customer service department of a hospital to inquire on old billing matters. Now that hospital and all of the hospitals that treated you after this medical kidnapping are refusing access to my medical records. What can I do? They messed with my medical treatment and they think they know more than my psychiatrist/neurologist who has been my doctor for 21 years this September on the 19th. He's a fantastic doctor with nearly 60 years clinical experience including his years of combat duty as a medic and I he s a professor at one of the leading research hospitals in the area. I think he knows more than these monkeys on the pharmacokinetics team where I was taken, especially since I wouldn't let them run any tests. They did, however, forge my signature and threaten me with extending the 72 hour hold another 14 days if I didn't "willingly consent" to whatever they threatened me with and then forged the "X" with a Sharpie or just stamped that I had "verbally consented" which was another one of their lies. All lies. And they doped me up with Zyprexa, enough of it to keep an elephant in a coma, and they mislabeled the generic Geodon they were supposed to be giving me, and instead they gave me generic Prozac (fluoxetine) I know this for certain because I'm trained as a pharmacy technician and I keep my licensing current, I just renewed in fact. The local police in my town just told my local community college where I take classes that I'm a "drug offender" and a "threat" and a "violent person". All lies. My father's wife perjured herself in 2004 and took out a TRO because of encouragement of local law enforcement who has been harassing me since they found out about my mental illness in 1985. They have harassed me since then and it has been a continued, nonstop pattern of accusations, intimidation, hate crimes, cat calls, they've called me a "whore" in the Santa Clara Superior Court House at 70 West Hedding Street in 1992, while court was in session, and they were admonished not once, not twice, but three times by the judge and nearly had to pay fines bigger than my own. I walked out there nearly unscathed after they tried, after planting evidence in my car, and with no BAL evidence to prove their case, tried to charge me with DUI and reckless driving and put me in county for a year, for felony reckless driving, when I was the only driver involved, the only driver injured, the only driver who's property was damaged, no other person's or entity's property was damaged. They were grasping at straws. The police and the hospitals are trying to "condemn" me and say that I need to live in a "group home' after I've successfully managed my own affairs since I was what? 8 years old with nonexistent parents. They can kiss my a**