Kathie Gagne died 4,476 days ago.

Obtaining Medical Records
February 20th, 2013 @ 6:06 am

Mathis and Murphy, P.A.On February 8th, 2013, I received three documents from Mathis & Murphy, P.A. which I needed to have signed and notarized. Two of the documents were to be completed by me and one was for my sister. On February 20th at 6:06 AM, Kristen Dobbins (legal assistant to Jill Bechtold, Esquire) sent me the following email:

 

Hello David:

I just wanted to let you know that we received the signed document from your sister and will be sending out all of the documents to the court today.

If you have any questions please let me know. Thanks!

Kristen B. Dobbins

 

I replied at 8:58 am:

 

Thank you, Kristen.

Can you tell me what the next step is? How long does the court and / or Woodland Terrace have to respond to these documents?

Thanks,

David Vincent Gagne

 

On February 21st, 2013 at 7:08 am, I received the following email from Jill:

 

David,

Kristen forwarded me your email below.

The court will generally take 2 weeks based on my discussions with the clerk of court. Unfortunately we had to file the estate in Volusia County and could not file in Duval County. I was hopeful we could do it here because it would be cheaper; however, Duval County won’t allow it because your mother never lived here.

Because we have to file in Volusia, we have to do a full administration at a cost of $400. If we had done it here, we would only have to do a summary administration at $235.00 because our local judge will name a personal representative in a summary administration unlike the judges in the other counties. In short, filing in Volusia made it slightly more expensive but the amount of time should be the same. The documents were sent yesterday (after I got your sister’s documents) and we have a calendar tickler to call them next Friday to check on status. Volusia County is not on electronic docket, so we have to call them to see the status and cannot check online.

After we get the court records, I can forward the letter directly to the attorney. I anticipate that he will get the records within 1-2 weeks, if not shorter.

This is my best guess as of right now, but all of these dates can be shorter or longer. I will let you know when we receive any information from the court.

Please feel free to call me with any questions,

Jill

 

I replied to her a few minutes later:

 

Jill,

Thank you very much for this information.

If I understand correctly, all of this is simply to establish that I am, in fact, legally justified to request my mother’s medical records from Woodland Terrace (and, I assume, anywhere else). So once this is completed you will be able to force them to deliver the records.

I do not have words to convey how incredibly frustrating and infuriating and insulting this entire process has been. I cannot thank you enough for how professional and competent your firm has proved to be since I started working with you.

Sincerely,

David Vincent Gagne

 

At 9:08 am she responded:

 

David,

Thank you for kind words.

Unfortunately you are correct that this entire mess is simply to establish, by law, that you are legally justified to your mother’s records. After HIPAA was passed, the providers went into overdrive protecting information because the fines are so steep for violating the law.

We will continue to press forward on getting the records and let you know new information as it is received.

Thanks you again,

Jill

 

Continue reading …

Documents to be signed
February 8th, 2013 @ 1:09 pm

On Friday, February 8th, 2013 I received the following email (with three attachments) from the legal assistant to our new lawyer:

 

David:

Attached please find three separate documents that we will be filing with the Court in Volusia County. Two are for your signature and one is for your sister’s signature. Please see the directions below for each document.

Oath of Personal Representative and Designation and Acceptance of Resident Agent-To be signed by you. Make sure to have it notarized.
Petition for Administration and Appointment of Personal Representative-To be signed by you.
Consent of Jennifer Gagne-To be signed by your sister. Make sure she has it notarized.

Once all of the documents have been fully executed please forward the originals back to our office and will file them with the Court.

If you have any questions please feel free to contact me. Thanks!

 

I replied to her on Monday, February 11th:

 

Dear [redacted],

I signed, got notarized, and mailed via USPS the first two listed documents to you this afternoon.

My sister has told me that she is doing the same with the third document.

Thank you sincerely,

 
Sister
February 8th, 2013 @ 11:10 am
 
 

Continue reading …

Medical Records Request Update
January 29th, 2013 @ 8:59 am

Just before nine o’clock in the morning on January 29th, 2013, I received an email from Jill F. Bechtold, Esq. of Mathis & Murphy, P.A. in response to our ongoing discussion regarding obtaining copies of my mother’s medical records from Woodland Terrace in Deland, Florida.

 

I received your paperwork and was able to get the name of the attorney for the facility. I have left a message with the attorney and will continue to follow-up. None of the paperwork is extremely helpful, but the Woodland Terrace release does reference PHI (private health information) which is expressly addressed in the HIPAA statute. Therefore, there is an argument that release is sufficient. However, it was signed by you and not your mother, so they may argue it’s still not valid.

I will let you know their position after I speak with them.

 

I replied to Jill about an hour later, at 9:49 AM, with:

 

Dear Jill,

Thanks so much for your response.

Please let me know if there is anything I can do or any more information I can provide.

 

I waited one week for a response, and then on February 5th, 2013 at 4:34 PM I sent Jill this note:

 

Hi Jill,

Have you had a chance to speak to anyone at Woodland Terrace since last week?

Is there anything — anything at all — that I can do to help?

Please let me know.

Thanks, sincerely,

 

Jill responded just after nine o’clock the next morning, on February 6th:

 

David

I am in Miami on a case today but will be back in the office tomorrow and can check to see if the attorney called me back. I spoke with the attorney that Woodland referred me to, but he told me local counsel is now handling it and would call me. I can check in the morning but right now we have to sit tight. I still want to try maneuvering around the Letters of Administration by possibly seeing if the PHI release will work that you executed in Woodland. It would save time and money.

I will contact you regardless tomorrow and give you a better update. I am sorry I am out of town today and don’t know more.

Jill

 
Letters of Administration
January 25th, 2013 @ 12:58 pm

Just before one o’clock in the afternoon on January 25th, 2013, I received an email from Jill Bechtold at Mathis & Murphy, P.A.. Attached was a scan of a letter — dated January 21, 2013 — which she had received from someone named Sam Chavin at Woodland Terrace.

Jill wrote me:

 

I received the attached letter from Woodland Terrace. Based on their response, my plan is to talk to their attorney. I suspect that you and your mother signed a release to HIPAA when she was placed in the facility. I am hopeful to speak with the attorney and have them review the file and see the release. If we cannot get them to agree, we may have to open the estate.

One additional thought is that your mother was Baker Acted (the second time) in January 2012. Do you have any court paperwork from the action? My thought is that the records may be sufficient to show you or your sister are the appointed legal guardians. It may not work, but I believe it is worth a try.

Right now I have called the author of the letter asking for the name of the attorney. Just wanted to keep you in the loop. I will let you know when I hear back.

-Jill

Attachment: Letters of Administration Request

 

I replied to her an hour later with the following email:

 

Dear Jill,

I do not think my mother signed anything at any point that would be legally binding; the primary reason I never assumed Power of Attorney was because by the time we realized it, we were told she was not competent to grant it. (And I’m ignoring for now all evidence that points to the fact that the only reason she was not competent was because she was flooded with mind-altering drugs, against all my very specific and direct approvals, for months.)

You can see details regarding everything I signed for Woodland Terrace at the following links:

http://kathiegagne.com/2012/07/31/returned-admissions-forms/
http://kathiegagne.com/2012/07/30/admission-pocket/
http://kathiegagne.com/2012/07/23/a-call-from-rosa/
http://kathiegagne.com/2012/07/20/incorrect-fax-more-rudeness/
http://kathiegagne.com/2012/07/17/consent-form-follow-up/
http://kathiegagne.com/2012/07/16/rosa-requests-consent/

I am sure that I have copies of all of the forms mentioned there. I will get them this weekend and then fax them to you on Monday morning.

I do have quite a bit of paperwork from when mom was Baker Acted, and I will fax that to you as well.

 
Another Week
January 22nd, 2013 @ 3:22 pm

On the afternoon of January 22nd, 2013, I emailed Jill Bechtold of Mathis & Murphy, P.A. to ask for a status update on our request to have Woodland Terrace provide copies of mom’s medical records.

 

Sent: January 22, 2013 @ 03:22 PM PST

Hi, Jill,

I am assuming you have not yet heard anything from Woodland Terrace, which does not surprise me.

Do you know how long you will wait before contacting them again? What is the next step?

Thanks,

 

Jill replied the next morning:

 

Sent: January 23, 2013 @ 10:53 AM PST

It does usually take some time to get records from these types of places. They is usually a records department that is separate from the main facility and often the request takes a while to be routed to the actual person capable of getting us the records we need. We usually allow for two weeks. We will schedule a follow-up contact with them next week on Tuesday if we haven’t received any response by then.

Thanks David,

Jill

 

I replied to her almost immediately:

 

Sent: January 23, 2013 @ 11:10 AM PST

Dear Jill,

Thank you for the prompt response. I’m sure you can understand my concern / frustration here: My mother died more than five months ago, and I have been waiting on getting these records for more than four months now.

My previous attorney simply kept telling me, “These things take time,” for months and months, and then stopped replying to me altogether. So please do not be offended by my paranoia here.

 

Just a minute later she wrote:

 

Sent: January 23, 2013 @ 11:11 AM PST

Not at all. We find that these facilities are slow, but we will keep at them!

Take care,

Jill

 
Request Submitted
January 14th, 2013 @ 5:26 am

I received this email from Jill Bechtold, Esq. of Mathis & Murphy, P.A. very early on the morning of January 14th, 2013:

 

Sent: January 14, 2013 @ 05:26 AM PST

David,

In case my secretary Kristen didn’t already contact you, I wanted you to know that I received the original HIPAA release from you and we are sending to Woodland with a request for the release of all records pertaining to your mother.

I will let you know when we receive a response from Woodland.

Thanks,

Jill

 

I replied a few hours later:

 

Sent: January 14, 2013 @ 11:40 AM PST

Dear Jill,

Thank you very much for the confirmation.

I should let you and Kelly know that last week I sent an email to attorney Steve Phillips of Pincus & Currier, LLP, to let him know that I would no longer require his services and that I have retained new counsel for my mother’s case.

Sincerely,

 
Contingency Contract and Statement of Insured Client’s Rights
January 10th, 2013 @ 1:48 pm
 
 
RE: Kathleen A. Gagne
January 9th, 2013 @ 5:13 pm
 
 
Re: Kathleen A. Gagne
January 9th, 2013 @ 4:37 pm
 
 
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