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Permalink Reply by Ron Sowell on October 14, 2010 at 12:58pm

Do our medical records not BELONG to us? After all, we pay for them! I don't understand why, but many patients have been treated this way when trying to get their own records. What is the deal!!! June (Ron's wife)

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Permalink Reply by lia deneau on October 14, 2010 at 12:59pm

Mary he did you a favor....there should be no secrecy with our medical records...I do have patients that ask to see their sleep study...because they cannot view it without proper software, I tell them that they are free to set up an appointment and we can sit and go over it together....this is of course after they have their visit to the doc....and if that is not what they are interested in they can go to medical records and receive a full copy of their records.... notes and all

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Permalink Reply by Banyon on October 14, 2010 at 1:57pm

Socknitster said:

It's all this HIPPA stuff. A few bad people abused the system and now the rest of us have to suffer and no one interprets the laws the same way.

For sure HIPPA is a big mess. I tried to find out how many pages long it is, but the regulators have issued so many amendments it is hard to tell. But it certainly is in the thousands of pages written by hundreds of bureaucrats. I could have done in in short time on one page - something like, "All patients shall have the right to keep their medical matters and records private and all medical practitioners are legally obligated to honor this right."

Let the individuals in medical practice figure out how to honor this right - they can do it. It becomes a big problem when bureaucrats try to tell them how to do it. Look around and you will see many medical practices have been forced to focus on the massive rules and thereby overlook the patient and his wellbeing.

After all, we have freedom of the press granted in a few short words without thousands of pages of rules and that has worked for over 200 years.

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Permalink Reply by Dan Lyons on October 14, 2010 at 2:12pm

Fired, by an incompetent physician!!! They may have saved your life. It sounds as if this "physician" needs to do this to all his victims. Makes you wonder about his whining staff. You know they are the ones who exacerbated the request.

You need to scan the letter, of course removing you personal information, and plaster his letter, with his "professional" letterhead, across the web on every sleep related site. You need to determine his affiliations and notify them also.

Make him pay for his total unprofessional approach to his profession.

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Permalink Reply by Robert Ferranti on October 14, 2010 at 9:35pm

Let me get this straight. You pay the Dr. so he works for you. He pays his office help to service you. How can he fire you ; if he works for you? If he is not capable to do his job than maybe he should go back to school or get a new job. Doesn't Apnea cause personality problems? Would not the personality problems be worse if the treatment was not working or is inadaquet?

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Permalink Reply by The Dreamer on October 15, 2010 at 8:29am

Not really sure I wanted to be fired by my sleep doctor.... Have only seen him a couple of times, though second visit his conclusion was to support my primary and didn't think there was anything else he could do for me.

OTOH, I would like to fire my primary....and find another primary within the same facility. And, maybe getting fired by him is what I need to have.... I chose the facility to be my 'medical home' (have an HMO+PPO type plan - the more HMO plan A than the more PPO plan B)...because of location and all the features of it. Sleep doctor is also part of the medical home (so I pay $20 co-pay to see doctors there, instead of the $40 co-pay for in-network not medical home specialists.)

At the time, when I chose the facility...sleep medicine wasn't a criteria...but he's the only sleep doctor in my area under my insurance. Though I have learned there is another sleep doctor in my area, has been board certified almost a year now...but his name doesn't come up on my insurance site.

I did briefly look at the other provider option (this is open enrollment month)...but the others seem to have much smaller local networks, and there's pretty much one other if I want to continue with most of my current doctors, DME, etc.


Anyways...I took a chance earlier this week and left a message for sleep doctor including some stuff that my primary had walked out of appointment when I had brought it up. He had said last visit that based on my first/only sleep study, my compliance report and notes from primary, there was no reason for another sleep study to look into why CPAP hasn't done anything for my EDS and other problems. But, looks like he's changed his mind....got a voicemail last night to discuss having another sleep study.

The Dreamer.

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Permalink Reply by Mary Z on October 15, 2010 at 9:31am

They were within their rights. They dismissed me from the practice for cause- being rude and belligerant to staff, sent the letter certified and it had to be signed for, agreed to allow 30 day emergency coverage, and offered to send my records to any new Doc. While I didn't see my actions as rude, they were persistant. I was leaving his practice, but I'm sorry it happened this way. Perhaps there were other factors at play- documentation that was misleading (quoting a H&P from over a year ago as a new one), they would not send the most recent two office visit notes, or in fact any office visit notes, so the rationale for my latest prescription, 30/25, was never given to my new Doc. I believe there were mistakes during the sleep study they were trying to cover up. I know the O2 sensor did not work during my first study there. I am not proud of being dismissed, or for being thought of as rude. On the other hand I'm convinced they were not totally on the up and up. Media coverage would make me look like a nutcase, though perhaps regular folks would understand my frustration with them. All's well that ends well. Perhaps they dismissed me before I could leave them. Coincidentaly I had cancelled my next appointment with him the day I got the letter.I agree and thank you for the idea, that my incorrectly treated sleep apnea exaccerbated my bipolar manic tendencies.br/>





Robert Ferranti said:

Let me get this straight. You pay the Dr. so he works for you. He pays his office help to service you. How can he fire you ; if he works for you? If he is not capable to do his job than maybe he should go back to school or get a new job. Doesn't Apnea cause personality problems? Would not the personality problems be worse if the treatment was not working or is inadaquet?

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Permalink Reply by Mike on October 15, 2010 at 11:45am

have you added your review to the SleepGuide directory?

Mary Z said:

They were within their rights. They dismissed me from the practice for cause- being rude and belligerant to staff, sent the letter certified and it had to be signed for, agreed to allow 30 day emergency coverage, and offered to send my records to any new Doc. While I didn't see my actions as rude, they were persistant. I was leaving his practice, but I'm sorry it happened this way. Perhaps there were other factors at play- documentation that was misleading (quoting a H&P from over a year ago as a new one), they would not send the most recent two office visit notes, or in fact any office visit notes, so the rationale for my latest prescription, 30/25, was never given to my new Doc. I believe there were mistakes during the sleep study they were trying to cover up. I know the O2 sensor did not work during my first study there. I am not proud of being dismissed, or for being thought of as rude. On the other hand I'm convinced they were not totally on the up and up. Media coverage would make me look like a nutcase, though perhaps regular folks would understand my frustration with them. All's well that ends well. Perhaps they dismissed me before I could leave them. Coincidentaly I had cancelled my next appointment with him the day I got the letter.I agree and thank you for the idea, that my incorrectly treated sleep apnea exaccerbated my bipolar manic tendencies.br/>





Robert Ferranti said:

Let me get this straight. You pay the Dr. so he works for you. He pays his office help to service you. How can he fire you ; if he works for you? If he is not capable to do his job than maybe he should go back to school or get a new job. Doesn't Apnea cause personality problems? Would not the personality problems be worse if the treatment was not working or is inadaquet?

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