Medical Records and Hair Transplants?

[FoxLox]

Well I went to a new dentist the other day who happens to be a friend of mine. As a new patient, I had to fill out all of the "new patient" forms. One of those forms asked questions about previous surgeries (including cosmetic). I may have been wrong in doing so, but I checked the "no" box saying that I haven't had any done. I couldn't figure out how letting my dentist know that I had a hair transplant would help, so I figured I would mark "no". Another form that I had to sign was an authorization to release or show my medical records. This got me thinking.

 

Is every doctor or dentist that I go to from now on going to be able to know that I have had a hair transplant? How does that work? Would a doctor or dentist usually access my medical records? If so, is there any way to have it taken off? Just wondering.

 

Foxlox

[FoxLox]

Well I went to a new dentist the other day who happens to be a friend of mine. As a new patient, I had to fill out all of the "new patient" forms. One of those forms asked questions about previous surgeries (including cosmetic). I may have been wrong in doing so, but I checked the "no" box saying that I haven't had any done. I couldn't figure out how letting my dentist know that I had a hair transplant would help, so I figured I would mark "no". Another form that I had to sign was an authorization to release or show my medical records. This got me thinking.

 

Is every doctor or dentist that I go to from now on going to be able to know that I have had a hair transplant? How does that work? Would a doctor or dentist usually access my medical records? If so, is there any way to have it taken off? Just wondering.

 

Foxlox

[trspl]

You usually have to sign a form specific to each doctor and list your doctors' names in order for your current physician or dentist to get copies of your records. With HIPPA, original signature is needed for each doc. Not giving your doctor this info could be a mistake, IMO. If you had a recent HT and then a dental proceedure, what about the risk of infection or cross contamination? Also you will probably have a scar on your head. If you were brought into an ER unconcious, they would probably want to know the reason for the scar..type of surgury, etc. I would at least have the info in my primary care doc's file.

 

my .02 Tom

[Guest]

Your medical record with a particular physician is not accessible to third parties (including other physicians)unless you sign permission to release your record to a specifically named third party. If a procedure is to be reimbursed by an insurer, you must sign a permission form granting your physician permission to submit information from your medical record to the insurer. The physician only has permission to share your record for the purpose described in the permission form and the record can only be shared with the designated recipient.

 

In Illinois, where I live, records are not supposed to be passed down a chain of health service providers. That is, if you grant your internist permission to send a copy of your medical record to your dentist, your dentist should not later on pass the internist's records on to another party, even if you give him permission to forward your dental records to that party. You would need to grant permission again to your internist to send his/her records to another party.

 

If you have had treatment with a provider and you did not use health insurance to pay and you have not granted permission to forward you records to anyone, that record is private other than some very compelling reason to access the record by court order.

 

The only pool of health information out there that you might lose control over is an insurance industry record with an organization called MIB. Some companies in the life insurance industry submit medical information from applications into a pool accessible by other industry members.

 

Consumers can check their own record with MIB. Not everyone has a record, but it's good to know if there is a file out there about your health. We can't create links to outside sites, but if you google MIB.com, I'm sure you can find the site and instructions for getting info from your file, if one exists.