How to Collect Your Records Your Own Damn Self

Robin Mead

If you are applying for disability, Social Security will collect your medical records for you. Or your lawyer will collect your medical records for you.

It won’t cost you a penny right now and you won’t have to lift a finger. Sounds great, right?

Not so much.

If you leave your records to Social Security, there is a very decent chance they will not collect everything. They will just make a decision based on whatever records they were able to get.

If you leave it to your lawyer, you may have better luck, but many lawyers do not collect your records for the first two years! They just let Social Security collect them. (If you read the last paragraph, you know what happens next).

If you are going to a hearing soon, it is much more likely that your lawyer will collect your records. But not guaranteed. Some of our readers have reported arriving at their hearing and discovering missing or incomplete records.

If you are able to collect your records yourself, this is the best. If you are not well enough to do this, that is OK too. If someone in this world loves you, now is a great time to ask for assistance.

If you have a lawyer, you can ask them for copies of anything they have already collected, and then you can fill in the gaps with everything they haven’t gotten.

How to Get Your Medical Records

📍To start out, it can help to make a list of any hospital or doctor you have been to since you became disabled, plus any earlier records that you feel are important or helpful for your case. See below for an idea how far back to go.

📍Ideally, include all emergency room visits, physical or occupational therapists, vocational rehabilitation, clinics, and any agencies where you received services or treatment.

📍If you have been in a homecare program or any other programs where you receive services related to your disability or health, make sure to request these files as well. They may be very helpful.

📍Next up, call or write the office and request a copy of the records you need. The doctor’s office will probably have a release form for you to fill out and sign.

📍Sometimes getting your records is easy as pie. Other times, not so much. Here’s some ideas if you run into troubles:

Sleepy Girl Super Secret Record Tricks

📍Records can be expensive. Here’s some tips on How to Get Your Medical Records without Paying an Arm and a Leg

📍For physical health, doctors are legally required to release your records. If they won’t do it, try this: Make a hipaa request. That should do the trick. If need be, you can also file a complaint.

📍For mental health, it gets a bit trickier! Here’s some ideas for what to do if you are having trouble getting psych records

📍It is very important to get complete records with treatment notes. The records you see online or the paper they hand you after an office visit are usually not complete records. Please make sure there are not Secret Medical Records they had not seen.

📍If your doctor is no longer in practice, or for some reason, you can’t locate the doctor or office where you think your records should be, there are some steps you can take to locate your medical records.

📍Try to get everything you can that relates to your illness. You may be able to find good records from hospitals, emergency rooms, home care agencies, vocational rehabilitation, mental health centers, clinics, occupational therapy, jails and community corrections, and school records on disability accommodations. If you had disability-related problems at your last job, human resources records from your job can also help.

Having Problems With Collecting Your Records?

Here’s a wonderful article by Erin Gilmer on Solving Common HIPAA Issues. Please read if you are having any of these problems:

📍 Trouble Getting all your records,

📍 Taking forever to get your records,

📍 Can’t Get Radiology images,

📍 Getting records the way you asked for them (CD, email, paper),

📍 Doctor’s Office insisting a patient pick up records in person,

📍 Doctors withholding records until payment,

📍 Wanting to Email instead of using portals,

📍 Concerns about retaliation

How Far Back Should I Go? 

📍 Usually Social Security will start looking at records based on the “onset date” of your disability. That’s the date when you first became disabled.

📍For physical health, they will consider records one year before onset date, and for mental health, they will go back two years.

📍 If you have important records before this time period, you can collect and send them too if you wish. If you send them, they may read them!

What Is My “Onset Date”?

📍 This is a tricky question, because what you think is your onset date may be different than what Social Security thinks.

📍 In most cases, they consider your onset date to be the last day you worked in any way. That’s the last day you performed actual work (not counting sick leave or getting paid while out on disability).

📍 In some cases, they are willing to consider the last month when you worked and earned over $1,170 per month. For example, if you are still working now, they will often look back to the last time you earned over that amount.

📍 Sometimes they chose a completely different onset date for you (for example, date of a car accident or date of a hospitalization or date of why-in-the-world-did-they-pick-this-date).

📍 If the date last worked is a really long time ago, then realistically, there is a limit. Most doctors’ offices destroy records after a certain number of years, so it might just be as far back as you can reasonably find.

Staying Home

📍 You do not have to go in person to collect your records. You can call and ask that any release forms be mailed to you, then you can sign and return the forms.

📍 You can also request that the records be sent to you by mail.

📍 If the doctor’s office or hospital says you have to be there in person, but your illness makes that difficult, you can let them know you are requesting a disability accommodation to do this by mail. If needed, ask to speak to a supervisor and/or ask who handles disability accommodation requests and how you can make a disability accommodation request in writing.

📍 Remember: Do not look at your records online unless you are 100% sure complete treatment notes are included. Most online records only include summaries of treatment notes.

Now What?

📍Once you’ve obtained copies of your records, be sure to review them carefully. If you find any important errors, you’ll want to try to attempt to correct them.

📍If you collected your records yourself, be sure to submit them to Social Security. Please do it the right way to avoid heartache later. How to Submit

📍Even if you submit your records, they can sometimes get lost (or put in someone else’s file!). Don’t forget to contact Social Security and check, check, and double check what is in your file.

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Updated August 2017. Please comment below with stories, questions, input or ideas. Please let us know if any links on this page stop working. 📍