By Barbara Carr, RHIA
As leaders in HIM, we understand that attorney requests for medical records are more complicated and require additional scrutiny and time than the average request for medical records. There are usually many calls back and forth regarding the status of their requests, questions over payment, and rejections due to missing information. Subpoenas are issued at the last minute and your HIM staff is expected to drop everything to respond. The attorney requests are mixed in with all the other release requests, making it more difficult to manage. The time required to stay on top of and ensure timely release of these requests often takes time away from the general release requests.
Verisma presented a webinar on October 28th featuring ChristianaCare, a 1,000+ bed teaching organization located in Newark, DE as they discussed their deployment of the Verisma Request App® (VRA) to offer attorneys the ability to easily submit, track and receive records. Stefanie Brumberg, RHIA, Corporate Director of HIM at ChristianaCare presented the business case, rationale and implementation of the app along with Anupriyo Chakravarti, Verisma’s CIO and SVP of R&D and Marcy Caudill, VP, Client Operations.
Stefanie described that ChristianaCare has a centralized Release of Information service that supports both acute care and ambulatory operations. She described their partnership with Verisma to implement VRA which required very limited support of the organization’s IT resources.
The Verisma team worked with ChristianaCare to install a link on their website specifically for attorney requests. The webpage is completed, supporting documents such as authorizations and subpoenas are uploaded and attached with the submission and electronically delivered to the ROI specialists for processing. The requestor receives a tracking number upon completion, as well as an e-mail with the tracking number, so they can keep track of their request. A busy attorney’s office can even see all their active requests by just entering one tracking number. An attorney can submit payment and once paid, can securely receive the records. No more phone calls back and forth regarding the status of the request, there is full visibility from start to the receipt of the requests. In addition, turnaround times and delivery are much faster because there is less missing information and data entry errors.
This was followed by a live demo of the solution by Anuyprio Chakrakarti. Following the demo, Stefanie and Marcy described the benefits seen thus far. Major benefits noted include:
- Improved effectiveness of the ROI Process
- Improved quality controls and overall compliance
- Decrease turnaround time – cut in half
- Significant decrease in inbound customer service calls
- Enhanced attorney satisfaction
A survey performed of the attorney’s that have used VRA was also conducted and showed great results! A summary of the responses received are:
- 100% would recommend this method to colleagues
- 100% will continue using this method
- 4.65 out of 5 rating for ease of use over other previous methods
- 5 out of 5 overall rating for overall experience
Some highlighted comments are as follows:
- “We receive the records MUCH quicker than we did requesting them via fax or by mail.”
- “Absolutely no comparison to old methods. I do not have to continue to follow up on requests.”
- “If you get rid of this Verisma Request App, I’m retiring.”
- “Very easy, straightforward, and love that a receipt confirmation comes through.”
- “I wish other facilities used something similar to Verisma. I like knowing my request was received and that I have a point of contact person to reach if I have any questions about the request.”
As you can see the Verisma Request App® has achieved the goals of improving the attorney request process and overall satisfaction, and thus has made HIM’s dealing with attorney requests a much more efficient and positive experience.
To receive a recording of the webinar, please contact Davy Simanivanh at dsimanivanh@verisma.com.
in disclosure management technology and services, has been rated the #1 ROI vendor in customer satisfaction and user experience by the latest Black Book™ industry survey. Black Book conducts research with healthcare executives and front-line users about their current technology and service partners. Top-performing vendors are awarded based on client experience, loyalty, customer satisfaction, etc.
