photo credit: tm_lv

In Colorado the cost of medical records are based on the number of pages in the records. This can quickly get expensive. But, you do not have to request every single scrap of paper, phone message, or referral that was ever generated by your doctor’s office. If you want to, you certainly can. But, chances are you will be paying for records you do not really need.

One way to keep the costs of your case down is to limit the scope of the medical records you are requesting. You can do this in two ways: Limiting the dates of service: how far back you want the records to go. Or, limiting the types of records.

So, what records do I need to get?

Before I try to answer this, a warning: While I can give you some very general guidelines, there is a very good chance that your case may fall into an exception. This is an area where good judgement becomes crucial!!!

Generally speaking, you want to get records about a year before the disability began, or a year before you filed for benefits. More recent records are usually more valuable than older records.

Some exceptions to this: if there was a significant accident, treatment or diagnosis before this one year period, you may want to get those records.

As far as types of records, records from specialists are generally more valuable than records from a primary care provider. But, you usually want to get records from both.

When my office is requesting records from a hospital, I usually tell the hospital not to provide medication logs or nurses notes as they can double or triple the number of pages, and thereby greatly increase the cost of the records.

Please note: you could reverse the information here and it still may be correct. Sometimes older records are more valuable than newer records and a family doctor’s records that go back for ten years may be more important that the records of a one time evaluation with a specialist. There are not hard and fast rules. In this area, it is all a matter of judgment.