I requested medical records (x-rays, pictures, 3d scans, procedure notes, and anesthesia records) from my old dentist. First by phone, then by email. They sent 1 day’s set of x-rays. I asked for the rest of my xrays and for the rest of information I requested. A week later they sent me 3 months/5 visits of xrays with all contextual information stripped, no dates, file names, or metadata.

It’s been about 45 days since I made my first in writing request. I wrote again today asking how I can get access to my medical records and asked if it would be easier if I came in and took pictures of it on the screen. They told me it would not be HIPPA compliant and they would get me the information. I followed up asking if the other media would contain the date it was created. No reply for almost an hour.

I looked up HIPPA to understand what I could request while waiting for their reply. Then instead of asking if it’d be easier if I drove over and took pictures, I affirmatively stated I wanted to view my PHI in person and take pictures using a smart phone to capture the information.

They then replied that they can’t pull electronic records with date information included. The options are a slew of emails with the date taken in the body section, or print outs with the date taken written above each image. They asked if anything was wrong and told me they would get me the information I requested.

I told them I requested this information over a month ago, that it was my third attempt to get the information. That their responses so far have been broadly incomplete and what information was provided was missing basic information like dates.

They sent a thumbs up and reiterated that they would be providing the requested information.

  1. Am I going about this all wrong? 2) Once I affirmatively request to view my PHI in person, can they counter-offer the request or otherwise ignore it? Is the expectation that I should repeatedly request an in-person viewing until they acknowledge the request?