As the adage goes, time is money. This holds more true for businesses than for almost anything else, with their ultimate objective being to generate income. Even activities that incur costs are expected to result in even larger returns at some point down the line.

Record retrieval can be a very clerical, procedural, time-consuming, and ultimately, unavoidable part of the legal process. It can involve funnelling hours into completing forms, making phone calls, or scouring the nation for the right doctor’s office, police station, employer, or medical service provider to reach out to.

Whenever a crisis hits, many individuals and organizations consult lawyers on matters such as filing insurance claims and inquiring about their legal options. However, the COVID-19 pandemic and the consequent stay-at-home orders issued across the United States have made it difficult for lawyers to serve their clients.

Law firms and insurance companies rely heavily on records to effectively do their work. For example, to win a personal injury case, lawyers need to gather incident reports, medical records, and more documents to support their client’s claim. Insurers, on the other hand, use medical records to evaluate an applicant’s risk.

Many practicing attorneys in the United States handle a lot of medical malpractice and personal injury cases, both of which rely heavily on medical records. The problem is that these records tend to be long, complex, and full of medical jargon, making these hard to sort through and comprehend for people outside the medical field.

Medical record retrieval is an important step after a car accident. In the United States, medical records are required for insurance claims, court trials, and other procedures. As a lawyer or insurance provider, it is, therefore, imperative that you know the right way to get the appropriate medical records from the hospital or your client’s doctor.

Retrieving medical records when putting together a case has always been a laborious task, with requests typically taking up to a month to complete. It can get costly too, not just because you usually have to pay for each record, but also because it can take multiple working hours to prepare and submit requests, as well as track progress.

You need all the time you can get to put together a compelling case, but if a lot of that time is being spent on retrieving important documents, then it won’t take long before the costs start piling up and delays become a part of the process. Retrieving medical records has traditionally been one of the most time-consuming steps of all, partly due to compliance processes and a lack of standardization and completeness with many records.

Whether insurance providers need to request medical records to support claims or attorneys need official records to put together a legal case, records retrieval has traditionally been a cumbersome and time-consuming task.

It’s something that in-house teams often struggle with, particularly in the case of smaller businesses that might not have a department dedicated to the task.

Medical records retrieval is a vital process for healthcare providers and insurance companies, but it’s something that takes a fair bit of time due to the sensitive nature of the information involved. That’s why it’s so important to have a clearly defined plan for requesting and managing records retrievals, which includes full end-to-end processing and auditing.