One of the common headache-inducing problems that injury lawyers face is obtaining medical records at a fair cost and in a reasonable amount of time.  But there is a way that lawyers should know about to obtain records inexpensively, and quicker than the traditional route in many cases.

The HiTech Act provides a way to obtain electronic medical records, and it lays out a procedure for obtaining them.  We are using this method now to obtain records, but we often meet with resistance from medical providers or their contractors.  It will likely take a dedicated effort by lawyers to make providers aware of the HiTech requirements and to obtain their compliance.

A very good resource for this is Paul Scoptur’s website, www.paulscoptur.com.  The HiTech Act’s requirements and forms are available at his site as well.  He has very generously made them available and they are very helpful.  Please let us know if you are successful in using the HiTech Act to obtain records and we can share your experiences with other lawyers.