Does a patient need to sign a record release authorization form if they are seeing an established DPM at their new facility?
A patient had surgery from a DPM that was in our practice at the time. That DPM is now at a new location, but we still have the patient's records. Can I just forward the records to that DPM's new location, or does the patient need to sign a record release auth allowing us to forward their records to the new facility?
Sarah, thanks for the question! My first part of my answer is to say you probably should check with your malpractice attorney as to how they want you to handle records releases when a former provider is no longer in your office or has moved on. My only recommendation based on my practice experience is that I would ask the patient to sign a record release for any records. This release from your office to another office in this type of scenario, protects yourself and your practice for that patient just in case they did not want to or authorize such a release.