How to Request Medical Records for a Social Security Disability Claim
The journey to Social Security Disability (SSD) benefits can be a complex and challenging process. Whether you are applying for the first time or navigating an appeal, one critical aspect of your disability claim is your medical records. These records serve as the backbone of your disability case, providing essential evidence to support your claim and demonstrate the severity of your condition.
The Social Security Administration (SSA) will attempt to collect your medical records based on the sources you provided in the application. However, this can delay your application’s decision AND the medical records SSA receives may be incomplete or inaccurate.
Don’t let incomplete, inaccurate, or delayed medical records prevent you from receiving the Social Security Disability benefits you deserve! In this post I will walk you through how to request your own medical records, so you will be prepared for your disability application.
Your Rights to your Records
The Health Information Protection and Accountability Act (HIPAA) not only protects your protected health information (PHI), it also gives you rights to access your records as a patient of a HIPAA covered medical practice.¹
The medical practice must take steps to verify the identity of the person requesting the records; but they cannot unreasonably delay the individual accessing their records.
The medical practice must provide the records in the form and format the individual requests (paper or electronic).
The medical practice must provide the records in the manner the individuals requests (walk-in, pick up, mail, e-mail, etcetera), unless it creates unreasonable security risks to the private health information (PHI).
The medical practice must respond within 30 days of receiving the record request, unless the practice informs the individual in writing of the delay and the date access should be available.
The medical practice can only charge a cost-based fee for providing the PHI.
If a medical practice violates your rights under HIPAA, you can report the entity to the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Civil Rights. If you need to report a clinician to the Office of Civil Rights, click here to visit their website.
Requesting Records
There are three main methods of requesting your medical records: visiting the medical practice, a faxed record request, and a portal request. A faxed record request and visiting the practice will take longer to complete; however, these options are easier if you are not good with online portals and downloading documents to a computer.
Visiting the Medical Office
If you live close to the medical practice or hospital that provided your medical care, you can visit the medical practice to request your records.
Visit the medical practice.
Speak to reception about submitting a medical record request.
Explain what form you would prefer (electronic or paper copies).
Fill out any release forms the practice requests of you.
Ask for an expected date of record availability.
Faxed Record Request
To complete a faxed record request you must complete the following:
Locate the provider and their medical record department’s fax number.
For many practices, you have to call the office to get the record department’s fax number.
Research if the practice requires any additional releases.
Some practices will require you to complete a release from their office.
You can find these additional releases on the practices’s website or by calling the practice.
Complete form SSA-827 and add the provider’s name, address, and phone number to the top left corner of the form.
Complete a fax coversheet.
Compile the fax coversheet, practice-specific record request (if applicable), and SSA-827.
Fax the record request to the practice’s fax number.
Portal Request
Most large hospitals and chain practices will have patient portals. These portals make it easy for you to access records without waiting for the practice to locate, print, and fax or mail the records. Additionally, patient portals administered by Epic’s MyChart will offer a Lucy Summary. The Lucy Summary makes it easy to locate your test results, procedures, and visit notes.
Each portal host uses a slightly different method of requesting the records. The instructions below are written based on MyChart. However, these instructions provide a great guide to figuring out any online portal system.
Locate the medical practice’s patient portal.
Log in to your patient portal or create an account, if you haven’t already.
Go to the Document Center in your patient portal.
Click on the Visit Records.
Click one of the following options (we recommend picking both the Date Range and the Lucy Summary):
All Visits for the entire health record (only choose this if the entire health record is relevant to your case),
Date range to specify a certain period of time you would like records for,
Lucy Summary to download a quick summary of the documents.
Click download.
Choose if you would like the file password protected and then click request.
Go to Requested Records to check the status of your download request.
When the file is ready, click download.
Northeast Georgia Medical Center has a great YouTube video explaining how to download documents from MyChart.
Neighborhood Healthcare also has a YouTube video for requesting documents from eClinicalWorks.
Conclusion
Your medical evidence is the most important part of your Social Security Disability claim, but gathering this evidence can be difficult. When you are sick, it is hard to think about completing paperwork, calling offices, or learning a new portal system.
Whether you need a little help or want someone to take over claim development, Unbound Disability Claims has the services you need!
If you are worried about your ability to retrieve your medical evidence, we are here to help. At Unbound Disability Claims, we provide hands-on representative services for Social Security Disability applicants who are overwhelmed by the application process. We represent applicants on a contingency basis, so you will not pay unless we win.
Sources
https://www.hhs.gov/hipaa/for-professionals/privacy/guidance/access/index.html#:~:text=Under%20the%20HIPAA%20Privacy%20Rule,apply%20in%20fulfilling%20the%20request.
