Which medical records are required?

[HopefulMom13]

I have a few questions about the exam and medical records:

When you go for your DoDMERB exam, are your medical records required at this time? Is it just the records from your pediatrician and dentist? If you went to see a specialist at some point, is this required even if not indicated in pediatrician's records?

How are medications (that you're taking or took in the past) revealed? By disclosing on the questionnaire, from physician records, or from another method?

 

[jiller59]

I will do my best to recall how the DODMERB process went for DS over a year ago - seems like ages ago!

He completed a questionnaire on DODMERBs website. Each Yes answer brought a host of other questions later in the process. We needed to enter a lot of dates, doctor names/addresses and diagnoses (ie every eye appointment date, doctor seen and diagnosis, same with orthodontist for braces, etc).

Fortunately I had detailed records due to using flexible spending for many years. I did need to contact our dentist and eye doctor for a couple of dates.

We were never asked to actually provide records. It is possible that we agreed to let DODMERB contact physicians so they could access DS medical/dental records as needed.

DODMERB would find out about medicines used based on questionnaire, but possibly they would find out by accessing records as well.

DS was given the name and number for a DODMERB-approved doctor and opthamologist in a nearby city and had to make appointments within a short period of time. I am sure the questions asked and answers received in those appointments are compared to the questionnaire responses.

DS had one DODMERB required follow-up, but he was permitted to go to his own physician. There were specific instructions for the doctor to follow for returning results.

I hope this helps!

 

[ProudofOurMilitary]

DS was not required to produce any medical records. Went and had his physical from a doctor and eye doctor that was on their list. Scheduled appointment, was seen promptly and waited for the letter to come in the mail. Then periodically checked his DoDMERB profile.

 

[Pima]

I don't recall our DS having to go to the dentist. I think they basically asked if he had his wisdom teeth, wearing braces, or any oral surgery.

He did have to go to an Optometrist as part of the exam. That too will be a DoDMERB doc.

As jiller59 stated, just have your records in order because if an answer pops than you will need to know the dates.

We were fortunate because DH was ADAF and we took him to the base. They made for him a CD ROM of his records. It became an asset because he took that with him off to college (OOS) for the JIC health issues there. They were able to than download it, and upload their info back on.

Just putting that out there for your own personal records.

 

[HopefulMom13]

Thanks all. Very helpful. So no one knows for sure if DoDMERB contacts the physician directly for medical records?

Pima - The CD-ROM of your records, was that from your physician or from after DoDMERB? I'm just wondering if getting all the medical records now and having it scanned to have a soft copy will be useful in the future.

 

[RNrecruiter]

Dear Hopeful,

My DS completed the DoDMERB process in 2012. As other posters have indicated, a medical exam and eye exam were required, but dental exam was not a part of the process. From reading through this board ahead of time, we knew DS had an automatic DQ condition. So we had requested all medical records in advance from his pediatricians and had them just in case. We had switched medical groups twice in the past 17 years due to insurance changes, so we had to request records from different doctors/medical groups. DoDMERB never contacted our doctors (to our knowledge). We brought all records to DoDMERB exam, but no one asked for them. When the expected DQ notification popped up on the DoDMERB website and subsequent letter requesting information for medical waiver and additional tests, we were prepared and copy of DS's medical record was in the mail the next day (we mailed them with delivery confirmation and tracking). I believe having all copies of medical records on-hand and ready to mail speeded up the waiver process. There was a special release form we had to complete in order to get copies of records from the pediatricians. Initially the physician offices indicated there was going to be a nominal charge for each page of the medical chart copied, but I wrote a little note that we needed the medical records for DS Naval Academy application and in the end none of the doctors offices charged us the fee. One pediatrician's office mailed us a hard copy of the medical record and the other office e-mailed a PDF file. In the end, DS was granted medical waiver and he did move forward to receive appointment to USNA. We were fortunate that process was very straight-forward and we didn't have any unexpected glitches. Well, there was one glitch, the optometrist office kept billing us $90 for the eye exam (AFTER receiving payment from Concorde). I called and left a couple messages for Concorde, but never received a callback. Finally I sent an e-mail to Concorde and they responded within 2 hours and handled the problem (never received another bill from the Optometrist). Good luck! (p.s. regarding your question about medications - DS listed them on the initial questionnaire and the physician medical records confirmed prescriptions and dates meds started, etc.).

 

[Pima]

It was done the day he went for the exam. The doc knowing he was going into the military did it without us asking for it.

Like everything else when it comes to this process, it is best to have duplicates of every piece of information that has ever been requested or sent. This just made it easier from a medical perspective

We did this for our other children too when it came time to going off to college. It came in handy when our DD 4 hrs away at VT went to the ER in the middle of the night and she couldn't recall all of her history. She just took the rom with her and they accessed it there when she couldn't recall answers to some questions.

RNrecruiter also brings up a good point, once they turn 18, by law they are considered an adult, and there is a privacy act issue. Even as a parent, the doc can lock you out from sharing any info with you.

Also as stated you should not pay a penny, even if they send you for a remedial, it is on their dime. This is also why you now see the exams being done later. Yrs ago when money was flowing as soon as they deemed you competitive the exam was done. Now, it is too expensive and they wait.

OBTW this will not be the last DoDMERB exam, prior to commissioning they will go through the process again. I don't know about A/NROTC, but AFROTC will send any cadet that is accepted for flight training to Wright Pat AFB, for 3 days. There they do it all, eyes, ears, dental, even an EKG. Everything.

 

[HopefulMom13]

Thanks again for the info...great to know.

One more question -- Is it true that they only look at medical records going back to age 13? I thought I read somewhere about that.

 

[RNrecruiter]

Because medical condition first appeared when DS was 11-12 yo, we provided medical records going back to before first diagnosis. I wanted to show he had no issues prior to age 11, the age at onset of problem and also continuing medical records that showed he had no re-occurrence of problem for a couple of years. If the condition occurred before the age of 13, I would suggest getting records from the intial first diagnosis (but only if you are expecting a medical DQ). If your child does not have any medical issues, then it's probably not necessary to get medical records prior DoDMERB exam.