Release Point, a third-party medical records paper chaser has got to be the worst patient note chaser there is. I have had many dealings with Release Point, and I know at one time Northwestern Mutual used their services and it was an absolute harassment fest.
First, the company calls physicians (and insureds) on a daily basis if information is not received within 10 days. The 10 day time frame is out-of-contract for both Group and IDI Plans and policies. Nevertheless, physicians and insureds alike are harassed with phone calls multiple times a day on occasion to sign Authorizations. People seem to get fed up with being harassed that many times.
Irritating as they are, Release Point asks insureds to sign multiple authorizations, one for each doctor. The company is relentless if you refused to sign as many as 12 (I’ve seen so far) Authorizations in order to obtain medical information. I had to actually ask the claims handler at Northwestern Mutual to “call off the dogs”, so to speak, and allow us to obtain our own medical records.
I’m going to take a quick guess here that Release Point is a “cheap” service. If they aren’t, insurers aren’t getting what they’re paying for. I once called a rep at Release Point to ask them to stop calling a client’s doctors so often. I was told that all personnel must follow procedures for client insureds and there was nothing that could be done.
Insureds who come across the name of Release Point should make a particular effort to obtaiin patient notes and send them to Unum (or any other insurance company) on their own. It’s anyone’s guess what your insurer has, or does not have, for medical records when Release Point is in charge. Whatever Unum is paying Release Point, it’s way too much!
