ob won't release records to midwife, what to do? - Page 2

[msmiranda]

This doesn't exactly answer your question (you've gotten good advice from others), but I'm an attorney by training and I strongly suspect this is a liability thing. You mentioning you were thinking of hiring a midwife made them think you might use them for shadow care, then try to birth at home and potentially show up at the hospital as what they refer to as a "train wreck", have a bad outcome, and then sue them because your midwife doesn't carry liability insurance. This is why the letter states that it applies to all doctors in their practice (i.e. whomever is on call, so you would have to get care from the hospital's on-staff OB and any liability would be the hospital's alone). Is their response overly paranoid and frankly absurd? Absolutely. But this is the world we are living in these days.

Regarding the records, they may believe that if they send records directly to a midwife they are somehow countenancing your choice to pursue midwifery care and could be subject to liability for in some way cooperating with your midwife (who you haven't even hired yet ...). Most likely, this is a draconian response to something that has either happened to this particular practice or to someone that one of the doctors knows. Sometimes I hate lawyers and the entire legal profession, and the fact that their antics have caused such grief and suffering for mothers and babies is at the top of my list of complaints.

[HeatherB]

Definitely request the records be sent to a MW of your choosing. Get those labs first so you know what you need to know now. They can't charge you to send to the MW, but they WILL charge to have them released to you.

A major hospital where my first son was born took MONTHS to get my records to my MW. They sent me (and her) a large bill for it, first, and when I called to complain, they seemed to have NO idea what a midwife or CPM was. She did get the records, eventually... and called to tell me I'd be just fine for my VBAC, as I was nursing my 3 month old.

Anyway, get what you need now, and make sure they do their job and give your new provider your records *for free*.

[mommy2maya]

Are home midwives licensed or legal in your state? The only reason I can see them legally refusing to send the records to a midwife is if it is not seen legally as a licensed healthcare provider.

[PoppyMama]

CPMs and CNMs can both legally attend homebirths here. The OBs in this city successfully stopped midwives from being able to deliver in the hospitals here and now there is only this practice and one midwife at the "public" hospital (and I believe she works for the hospital). People seem to think the top doc at this practice is the "mother teresa" of OBs but she still wants to keep her territory under lock and key.

[clarasmom]

PoppyMama...don't know if you live in ATX, but it sure sounds like we are talking about the same "mother Teresa" that fired my pregnant butt....
Msmiranda.... abandoning your patient with pending labs and an ultrasound that needs to be review to me is a huge liability. If she was worried about my intentions, she should've asked me, instead of taking a nurses word for it. I feel like she got her panties in a bunch because I was considering using a CPM at home instead of her CNM's in the hospital. Her practice uses midwives, but not necessarily the midwife model of care.

[nashvillemidwife]

Ask to speak to their HIPAA Compliance Officer. Every office is required to have a person designated as the compliance officer, and they are required to tell you who that person is in their privacy policy. It's important that you use that official wording - HIPAA Compliance Officer - to let them know you know what you're doing, you know what they are doing is wrong, and you know you have recourse.

[msmiranda]

Originally Posted by clarasmom

PoppyMama...don't know if you live in ATX, but it sure sounds like we are talking about the same "mother Teresa" that fired my pregnant butt....
Msmiranda.... abandoning your patient with pending labs and an ultrasound that needs to be review to me is a huge liability. If she was worried about my intentions, she should've asked me, instead of taking a nurses word for it. I feel like she got her panties in a bunch because I was considering using a CPM at home instead of her CNM's in the hospital. Her practice uses midwives, but not necessarily the midwife model of care.

Absolutely -- didn't mean to sound like I was defending her at all! You are completely in the right. I am shocked and appalled at their behavior, and was just trying to come up with a (in their minds, not in reality) logical explanation for why they decided to handle things this way.

[TizTaz5]

This is ridiculous! I think that they are legally bound to release copies of your records to you. I had a problem once with a doctor's office that wouldn't send test results to my midwife. I ended up paying a nominal fee ($1 per page) to have my test results given to me, and I then faxed them to my midwife. It wasn't that my doctor didn't agree with seeing a midwife; his office simply had a policy not to send records to anyone but another MD. Whatever the reason is, you doctor can't just summarily refuse you copies of your own medical records/test results. I'm sorry to hear that your doctor is treating you like this.

[mirabillis]

Originally Posted by clarasmom

What really makes me angry is all of this headache because I mentioned in passing that I might want to hire a midwife. If say maybe someday I'll dye my hair red, my hair stylist would try to talk me out of it, not fire me as a client.

we had to stop seeing our OB too when i mentioned the word 'homebirth.' he said even mentioning the possibility, they have to stop seeing you immediately. because of the ever-increasing tax of malpractice insurance. something to do with the OB being responsible if something should go wrong in your homebirth, if he has knowledge of it. so he/she has to essentially fire you, to make sure they are relinquished from any responsibility, for malpractice reasons.

that was #3 for me. with #4 & now with #5, i still saw the same OB through about 30 weeks. we have a don't ask, don't tell policy. he doesn't ask what i plan to do, i don't tell. and it works out fine.