[Chelee]

Without getting into everything I needed all my medical records. I had most of them but they did not include all the doctors progress notes, hospital records which include surgical reports, nurses charts & notes, discharge papers, etc. This was a big job for me since I have seven doctors.

What Lani said is correct. They usually asked me what doctor I wanted these sent to so that I would't have to pay for them. But in my case what I found out is when you fill out the medical records release form it has a bunch of boxes to check as to why you want your records? It says something like for Self, doctor, Attorney, continued care, etc. I can't remember them all right now. But whatever you do...DON'T check just the box that says "self". If you do they WILL charge you because you want them for yourself.

Later while picking up more of my records I was talking to a women in the records Dept and the topic of charging me came up. She explained that if you check the box that says "continued care" you will not be charged. They know you want the records to take to other doctors that you will be seeing. So the two ways to make sure you won't get charged is to have them sent to one of your doctors if you have a close enough relationship with him/her. Or check continued care and they will not charge you. I always checked BOTH boxes that said "self & continued care". I can't stress enough how many records I've collected this way...not only my records but all of my Mother's records. I seriously haven't paid a dime for any of them due to checking the right boxes. Hope this helps someone.

Chelee