El Hogar Regional Support Team

Review: On September 19, 2014 I requested all of our claimants [redacted] (Ransom) medical and psychiatric records from El Hogar Community Service Inc./EL Hogar Regional Support Team asking for the records to arrive by October 19, 2014. On October 17, 2014 I personally spoke to [redacted], El Hogar's front desk assistant, and she informed me that the records will be mailed out. On October 22, 2014 I faxed a reminder. On NOvember 3, 2014 I changed the facilities name/address on the authorization as requested.

It's been over 2.5 months and this facility doesn't respond to letters, phone calls, faxes, or messages. This is not the first client that we would receive a run-around trying to obtain the records on time. Our office gives two to four weeks for the facility to provide us the requested records and they continue to waste time, ignore our follow up letters/faxes, and are violating the California Law which states "If you made your request in writing for the records to be sent directly to you, the physician must provide copies to you within 15 days. The physician can charge a reasonable fee for the cost of making the copies. If the physician's office advises you that a fee will be charged for the records, the medical records do not need to be provided until the fee is paid. If the physician does not comply within the time frame you can file a written complaint with the Medical Board."

I wouldn't be surprised if our clients sue EL Hogar Community Service Inc./El Hogar Regional Support Team for malpractice.Desired Settlement: I enclose the letters, request, authorization, and will cross off the Social Security Number for the protection of the claimant.

Sincerely,

[redacted] Assistant to [redacted], Esq.

Business

Response:

Thank you for contacting us and for the work you do in helping entities resolve misunderstandings and dispute** We also appreciate your recognition in your cover letter that the “Revdex.com realizes there are two sides to every dispute”. El Hogar takes client care very seriously and considers timeliness of requests to be a part of excellent service. In that same vein, we also are committed to ensuring that authorizations and releases are accurate and complete in order to protect our client’s privacy. In response to the matter you have contacted us about, on 9-19-14 El Hogar received a records request accompanied by a Release of Information (ROI) with an incorrect clinic address from the [redacted] Law office. As a courtesy, El Hogar staff contacted the [redacted] Law office and spoke to law office staff letting them know the address on the Release of Information (ROI) form was incorrect (thus making it void) and provided the correct addres** Even after providing this information, El Hogar received the same Release of Information (ROI) still containing the incorrect address (again making it void) back from [redacted] Law office on 10/22/14. El Hogar staff again, as a courtesy, called the [redacted] Law Office and spoke to Law office staff to let them know that the address needed to be corrected on the Release of Information (ROI). It wasn’t until Nov 3rd that El Hogar received a new Release of Information (ROI) with the correct addres** However, the consumer’s name was now incorrectly spelled on this particular Release of Information again making it void. At this time, because so much time had lapsed, El Hogar called the consumer directly to have her come in to the El Hogar clinic and fill out a Release of Information (ROI) with all of the correct information so we could in fact send her records as requested. The consumer came in to sign a corrected Release of Information (ROI) on 11/21/14. We then immediately sent consumer’s records to the [redacted] Law office on 12/8/14. We are extremely busy serving clients in a clinic that is full to capacity. Please let us know what else you need from us at this time to resolve this matter swiftly so we can focus our energy on our work at hand. Again, we do greatly appreciate your efforts on behalf of all businesses and thank you for your time in this matter. Respectfully, [redacted], [redacted], LMFT Clinical Director/Custodian of Records El Hogar Community Services, Inc. 3780 Rosin Court | Suite 110 Sacramento | CA | 95834 P: [redacted]

Consumer

Response:

Thank you Ms. [redacted] for responding to my letter and I disagree with you about the "As a courtesy, El Hogar staff contacted the [redacted]. [redacted] and spoke....." Your office didn't return any of our messages. Your office answered our call and provided us with the correct direction to obtaining the records by your ruling on November 4, 2014. On November 17, 2014 I wrote another letter and enclosed an updated authorization. But according to your letter you waited for the claimant to come to your office and complete your authorization. I requested the records on September 19, 2014 but received correct direction on November 4, 2014. Your office allowed 1.5 months to pass by until we called again asking for the status, then we received proper directions about the facility name/address and claimaint's first name spelled incorrectly. I would advise you to check your bill for the records that you provided us in December 2014; you spelled the first name incorrectly as well.I'm hoping that in the year 2015 going forward you can fax/mail the requester(s) a letter informing them the problem with either the request or authorization instead of letting time pass by and having your message machine filled with messages. It would have been so much easier if I received a letter a few days after faxing the request/authorization informing me what the issue(s) to be corrected. Sincerely,Ilona M.Assistant to [redacted] S. Kaplan, Esq.