OT- Moving to another state and medical records

My wife and I are planning on moving to another state next Spring to live closer to our daughter. Both my wife and I have extensive medical histories, I know other people on this forum have moved recently. So my question is did you get a hard copy of all your medical records from all your doctors before you moved, or did you simply move and start with a new doctor and gave him or her your history and bottles at your first visit? My wife takes a lot of potent drugs that I think a new doctor would be hesitant to give a new patient simply because they say they have that condition. It would be dangerous for her to run out some of those pills if getting refills was a problem. Any suggestions?

Your doctors should be able to give you hard copies of your medical records to take with you...Going back 2 or 3 years is probably long enough. They will also give you a one or two page summery of your overall medical condition which your new doctors will find very helpful..Check with your insurance provider to make sure that moves with you...

We moved from Ohio to Florida last year and used just about every conceivable means of transferring records from our doctors in one state to the other. First I requested that my PCP of over twenty years send my records to my new doctor, whom I had already established contact with. I got my first physical from my new doctor without incident, however they coded it wrong for insurance and I ended up with a hefty bill, which they "wrote off" rather than correct the error.

Then when I returned to Ohio to sell our house I was told that I was not allowed to see my old doctor because my records had been transferred. Telling my new doctor about that he said he'd never heard of such a thing. There are many snowbirds who maintain relationships with both doctors. Of course, if something can possibly go wrong, it will happen to me.

While back north I also had my radical prostatectomy surgery (long story). When we returned to Florida I asked that my records be transferred to my new Urologist there. My first visit to him he of course had no records, and after a two hour wait to see him I had to spend the entire time giving him my medical history. Eventually I was able to get the proper records transferred by the time I had to see a radiation oncologist.

Records of my last four colonoscopy/endoscopies were transferred without incident. And at the conclusion of my final visit with my dermatologist in Ohio they gave me a packet with all my derm records for when I see my new dermatologist next week. I hope that when when it comes time to finally have my TKR that there will still be records of my TPF on file at my orthopedic surgeons office, as he retired about five years ago.

Our dental records... I contacted both our old dentist and our new dentist multiple times before our first visit, gave them each others' phone numbers and followed up numerous times with both before the transfer of x-rays actually happened. It was like pulling hens teeth.

Long story short... even when you do everything right, count on something going wrong.
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I keep copies of my records in my computer - prescriptions, diagnoses, and records of treatment. That way, when I see a new doctor, I email my records to him in advance of the meeting. Most will prefer on-line copies to paper.

mspt98 said...
... does anybody know if you can get your refills for medications transferred from a Walmart in the state in which you live to a Walmart in the state to which you are moving?

It wouldn't hurt to check on this yourself, but I have done that both with Walmart and with Target. When I asked I was told it depended on the prescription. If it is for a controlled substance (generally, narcotics) then the answer is no. But for lets say simpler stuff, their computer systems don't seem to care which store you use and what your address is. After we moved it took many months to get our new address changed at places like Walgreens and CVS in addition to the two mentioned above.

I did talk to pharmacist at our Walmart and it was As Roblee said, for regular meds like bp pills, she said no problem, but for controlled substances like lomotil (yes that's controlled believe it or not) and drugs like Valium and Ativan probably not, depends on the state, good to know this info, thx for all replies