Move Cases Quicker by Managing Medical Records

Another timely article for law firms looking to re-evaluate practice for 2008, was originally posted 3/27/07 at Trial Lawyer Resource Center by plaintiff’s attorney (and avid blogger) David Swanner, Why It’s So Hard to Move Cases.  Swanner analyzes the just one thing left phenomenon, something his friend termed “Litigation Constipation.”  Swanner, if you’ve read any of his blog entries before you would know, ever the analytical one breaks it down well. 

What struck me with his break down was nearly everything had to do with a medical record aspect as follows:

• Waiting on Records from a Doctor’s Office – They’ve sent 2–3 letters and called and called, but can’t get a response or records from that office.
• Waiting on Bills from an Office – The doctor’s office uses a third party billing service halfway across the country and they can’t get anyone to respond. (This one, I really don’t understand because the bills are on the computer and they can print and fax them to you, and it helps them get paid).
• Waiting on an Expert’s Report – an FCE, IME, vocational consultant or other experts report. Where the client has gone for an evaluation, but the report isn’t in yet.
• Waiting for a Specific Medical Report – We have the medical records in for that doctor, but when we’ve compared the medical records to the medical bills, there are a few dates of treatment missin[g].

Having worked for 12 years in the litigation field for both civil trial and insurance defense attorneys, I would say this is a fairly common scenario.  As I often say when trying to explain how I came up with the concept of medical record canvasses, through my experience I concluded that the medical records were both the place to turn for the most useful case facts and yet often the most time consuming and expensive part of the litigation process. 

 My firm, S.P.I., specializes in insurance fraud detection via medical record canvasses and medical record reviews.  If you are an insurance adjuster or attorney (plaintiff or defense) you can turn to S.P.I. for medical record acquisitions and accurate summaries.  S.P.I. performs medical record canvasses nationwide, and while S.P.I. would love to work with local Knoxville attorneys (plaintiff or defense) to make their medical record acquisitions and summaries efficient, with today’s technology this aspect can be managed from afar as well.