How to switch GLP-1 clinics and take your records with you

People stay with clinics they have stopped trusting because switching feels like starting over. It is not. Your records are yours by federal law, a new clinic can start from what you already know about your own treatment, and the medication itself does not care who signed the last prescription. This is the sequence.

Your right to your records

The HIPAA Privacy Rule gives you a right of access to your health information held by a covered entity, which includes clinics, telehealth medical groups and pharmacies. The HHS Office for Civil Rights guidance and the rule text at 45 CFR 164.524 set out:

• Timing. The entity must act on your request no later than 30 days after receiving it. It may extend once, by no more than 30 days, and must tell you in writing why and when.
• Form. You can ask for an electronic copy if the record is held electronically, and it must be provided in the form and format you request if readily producible.
• Fee. Only a reasonable, cost-based fee: labour for copying, supplies for the copy or electronic media, postage, and preparing a summary if you agreed to one. Not a search or retrieval fee.
• Sending it elsewhere. On a written, signed request that clearly identifies the recipient and where to send it, the entity must send the copy directly to the person you designate, such as your new clinic.

A clinic cannot condition release on you staying, on paying a disputed membership fee, or on an exit interview.

What to request

Ask for the whole record, and name these specifically so nothing is left out: intake questionnaire and history; every visit note or message thread with a clinician; the prescription history with dates, doses and the dispensing pharmacy; lab results; any consent forms; and the clinic's record of your weight and vitals. From the pharmacy, if separate: dispensing records and, for a compounded product, the certificate of analysis for each batch.

How to send the request

In writing, dated, through whatever channel the clinic publishes for records requests (portal message, email, form). One paragraph is enough: your name, date of birth, that you are requesting a copy of your complete record under 45 CFR 164.524, the format you want, and where to send it. Keep a copy. If 30 days pass with nothing, write again citing the deadline. If that fails, the HHS Office for Civil Rights takes complaints; the guidance page links the process.

Do not wait for the records to start

The new clinic needs five things you already have: your current medication and dose, the date you started and each dose step, your last few weeks of side effects, any recent labs, and your full medication list. Bring them to the first visit; how to prepare for a first visit has the checklist. The formal records confirm what you have said; they are not a precondition.

Avoiding a gap in medication

Count your remaining doses before you give notice. Both drugs are once weekly. The Wegovy label says a missed dose can be taken if the next scheduled dose is more than 2 days away, and that after 2 or more consecutive missed doses escalation should be reinitiated at a lower dosage; the Zepbound label allows a missed dose within 4 days. A gap of several weeks therefore usually means restarting escalation, not resuming your old dose. A new clinic will generally want to see you, review your history and possibly labs before prescribing, which can take one to three weeks depending on model. Book the new intake before you cancel the old membership, and tell the new clinic your last dose date and remaining supply so they can plan the handover rather than a restart.

If you are changing products at the same time, from brand to compounded or the reverse, that is a prescribing decision. Compounded products are not interchangeable with brand products; the new clinician decides the dose, not the old prescription.

Stopping the old clinic cleanly

1. Read the cancellation terms first. Federal law (ROSCA) requires a simple mechanism to stop recurring charges. Use the published one and keep the confirmation.
2. Cancel after the records request, not before. Portal access sometimes ends at cancellation; download what you can while you still can.
3. Ask for written confirmation of the cancellation date and that no further charges will be taken. If a charge appears afterwards, dispute it with your card issuer with the confirmation attached.
4. Tell the pharmacy if refills are on an automatic cycle, so a shipment does not arrive after you have moved.

Tell the new clinic why you left

Not as a complaint, as information. "The last program never asked about my family history" or "I could not reach anyone when I was vomiting for three days" tells the new clinic what to do differently, and its response tells you whether it will. Questions to ask on the first call covers the rest.