hospital discharge papers?

Quick question, Does anyone know how to get copies of these? It is not like I hung my copies up like art work on the wall and know where they are. One of the surgeons I am getting the second opinion from wants these. I am beginning to think I can only get a copy from the hospital. I know they are going to give me a hard time getting them b/c I owe them so much money. *sigh* Do you think my surgeons office has copies?

Tavia Call the hospitals medical records dept. There should be a copy on your chart and tell them you would like a copy of it. Just make sure you tell them your discharge date. Jane aka The LI Princess

Thanks Jane!

Your VERY Welcome

Tavia; Call the hospital you were discharged from, ask for Medical records, they can mail you a release of info form (or you can stop by either way). They are REQUIRED by law to provide you with YOUR records, and I am 99.9% sure they can NOT withhold due to failure to pay. Also FWIW billing and Medical records probably do not COMMUNICATE, so MR peole have no awareness that you OWE of NOT. Now if you encounter issues, I'd go up chain of command at hospital, OR get my surgeon involved to advocate for me! I do NOT expect this to be an issue. They do have the right to charge, up to like 75 Cents a copy a page for records, depends how much you want and if they charge. Wishing you well Take Care, Jamie

Thanks Jamie, I made the surgeon call over there last time to let them give me copies of my CT-Scan (when I went for the second op.) w/out paying. That was b/c I literally had no money to give. I had to park on top of this big hill and walk all the way down the hill to get into the hospital (those you know the hospital know what I am talking about) I didnt even have money to pay for the parking garage let alone copies of the CT-Scan. When I got copies of my upper GI I just walked out with them in my hands w/out paying. I thought someone woud come running down the halls to stop me, but no one did. Ha. What I did the other day is park in the emergency room parking lot(free) and told the guard I am a patient...well I am...just not of the ER that day! Then I just walked through the emergency room to radiology. I know its bad but when you are poor you have to do what you have to do!

Tavia, Have the Md that wants them to get them. This will be faster and they dont charge mds! All you have to do is tell him you cant find them then i am sure that he will say "oh just sign this Hippa waiver and my secretary will get them!" Last week I got all my records from my mds some charged 75 cents a page! but they told me if I had the md request them it would be free! but i wanted my own copies.

Thanks!