Posted by Christ_empowered on December 20, 2010, at 21:30:48
So, here's what happened: I called an ex-therapist/counselor for records. I saw him years ago, and called him about 3 years ago for records. First he said he didn't know where the records were. Then he said "Don't you think you'd need to pay me to find your records and prepare them for you?" I didn't know what to say. He was being manipulative. I hung up, and felt angry.
Fast forward a couple years. He's been given a subpoena for my records as part of an ongoing state board investigation of a psychiatrist I went to. That was months ago. I called and got his voice mail. I said "This is ___, a former patient. I want my records. I don't want any crap about not knowing where they are or having to pay you; I'm familiar w/ the HIPPA laws and I need you to say yes or say no. If you say no, someone--a lawyer, the medical board, or possibly another mental health professional--will get them for me. I'm going to give you a couple days to think about it."
This time, I got a *much* different response. He called *ME* back (must have checked his caller ID) and left a message saying my records were ready and that I just needed to call the receptionist so I could pick them up and sign a release. I don't even have to pay a copying fee!
On the one hand--hell yeah! He was such a bully when I saw him--take this, don't take that (w/o any medical training!), not believing me when I had problems or side-effects, that sort of thing. Eventually I quit seeing him and went to a shrink.
On the other hand--am *I* becoming the bully? As a Christian, that's not cool.
Anyway, it was kind of sad hearing his overly-nice message on my voice mail. I remember how he treated me when I was down-and-out (you're schizophrenic, blah blah blah), and now all I had to do was say "Lawyer!" and he crumbled. I respect him even less now than I did before, although I thought this might happen.
What do you all think?
poster:Christ_empowered
thread:974154
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20101219/msgs/974154.html