Medical Record Retrieval for Attorneys – In-house or Outsourced, Which is Better

The healthcare data of a patient resides in his/her medical records. To obtain this data for medical or legal purposes, medical record retrieval becomes necessary. This retrieval process is tedious and time-consuming, and a practical solution becomes vital. The choice has to be made between in-house retrieval and outsourcing to a good medical review company.

What Constitutes In-house Medical Record Retrieval?

In this business model, the attorney has to use their own personnel and resources to collect, manage and securely maintain the medical records. Here, the law firm has to have a designated team of staff such as legal assistants and paralegals to manage the medical record retrieval process. Moreover, this team will have to communicate directly with the concerned healthcare providers such as physicians, hospitals, clinics and so on to request the medical records and follow up on them.

Another important requirement is to have in place robust policies and procedures in-house for medical record retrieval. The retrieved medical records must be properly organized and stored either in a physical storage system or electronic system so that they are readily accessible for case preparation and trial. Once all the records are available, the law firm must make sure that they have the complete set of accurate records. There should also be supervisors or team leaders to provide the necessary guidance and ensure high efficiency and quality standards.

 The In-house Advantage

Retrieving medical records in-house has its advantages but may be challenging for busy law firms hard-pressed for time, as well as small and mid-sized law firms with lesser resources. First, here is a look at the pros of in-housing the retrieval process.

• More control and supervision: Since the process is performed in-house, you may be able to better ensure quality, compliance and data security.
• More awareness of the institution: Your own staff may have a more comprehensive understanding of the organization and its policies. The retrieval process can be streamlined because you are fully aware of the current relationships with the providers and the retrieval procedures involved.
• Faster response: When you have a dedicated team to handle the entire process, all activities can be completed much quicker.
• Cost-effective: In-house retrieval could be more cost-effective than when outsourcing.

Challenges Involved

To understand why outsourced record retrieval services is the better alternative than in-house processes, we need to examine the situation when the law firm employs its own staff to acquire the medical records. This strategy poses quite a few challenges.

• Large volume of medical records: This can be too much to handle even if you recruit extra staff to help. Each medical record will involve initial contact with the provider, and a number of follow-up calls.
• Tracking the status of the record requests: Status tracking is a tedious process, and often you may find that hardly any information is available. You may have to make repeated calls to the provider.
• Issues with accounting: Managing payments would become burdensome; it would become necessary to cut checks for individual invoices to each provider before the medical record release.
• Loss of valuable time: Since many record requests would remain pending, you will lose a lot of valuable time.

To address the challenges posed by the manual record retrieval process, you could consider automated medical record retrieval. Ask yourself the following questions when planning for automation.

• Can your existing office staff quickly retrieve the necessary medical records? If your law firm is involved in pharmaceutical/product liability/mass tort litigation, it is very likely you have to handle large amounts of medical records from multiple clients. This means you need more staff to request, follow up on and process medical records. An electronic retrieval and management system will help you employ fewer people and also save space and time.
• Are you receiving the records you ordered within quick turnaround time? If not, it can pose serious problems. Automated record retrieval would help to shorten the long-drawn out process of obtaining the medical documents.
• Is space insufficient in your law office? If you have a shortage of office space, automation can help with no need to maintain paper copies of medical records. This has become a necessary step with paperless offices becoming essential to ensure efficiency of law practices. You can save both space and time by maintaining electronically scanned client files, including medical records.

Outsourcing Medical Record Retrieval

Outsourcing the retrieval could be a cost-effective alternative to in-housing the process. Law firms utilizing accurate, timely and professional medical record retrieval services experience improved productivity and a positive impact on their cases whether mass tort, malpractice or product liability among others. The service is provided by a highly experienced, knowledgeable workforce that can easily identify whether the medical chart is complete and if any information is missing. They can communicate well with hospital administrators, doctors and plaintiffs with authority, understanding, ease and compassion. Here are some of the other advantages of outsourcing.

• More efficient handling of fluctuations in demand: Outsourcing could ensure more scalability and flexibility. This helps to efficiently handle fluctuations in demand and efficiently meet the law firm’s needs.
• More cost-effective: When outsourcing, you can expect more cost-effective and efficient services without having to maintain the required resources in-house or provide training to staff.
• More effective risk management and compliance: Outsourcing companies have strong risk management practices and compliance programs in place.

Consider the organization’s specific needs, resources and priorities when making the decision to in-house or outsource your medical record retrieval requirements. Also, consider in great detail any compromises that may be involved.