05/05/2023    Paul Kesselman, DPM

Harassment by Ciox Health (Name Withheld)

I have made it no secret that while there is an
obligation to respond to the requests, but there
is no requirement to submit charts at no charge.
Here are some things you need to do:

1) Get rid of the dinosaur fax machine. There are
methods by which to receive faxes directly to your
computer. So no ink, no paper. You can do an
internet search to find a myriad of companies
which charge a minimal amount based on the number
of pages. (e.g. $10 for 100 pages incoming and
outgoing). Let Ciox send as much as they want.
Depending on the service you choose, you may also
be able to block incoming faxes based on the phone
number.

2) As for your response. A simple one-paragraph
statement that you will provide them with the
required records upon payment of $X per chart.
When I was in practice I asked for $50 and settled
for $25 per chart. So did the internist I shared
space with. Neither of us ever relinquished one
chart until we were paid. If they may ask you to
complete a W9 you will know you are on the right
track.

3) I have not heard of one practitioner (DO, DPM,
MD) ever being removed from a third party panel
for failure to submit charts to Ciox since these
types of data mining requests began.

4) Now for the good news, many of the ICD10 which
upgrade patients from a lower to a higher tier may
be changing in 2024. This may actually reduce the
number of podiatric patients whose charts would be
subject to data mining. This is far from definite.

In the interim, get rid of the dinosaur fax
machine, save trees and ink, and convert to
digital fax services which are HIPAA-compliant and
simply delete and/or block unwanted faxes. As for
Ciox, if you have already answered a request for a
set of charts, simply keep responding with the
same letter as an attachment. This should take a
well-trained assistant no more than a minute.

Paul Kesselman, DPM, Oceanside, NY

There are no more messages in this thread.