Corey's digs - Something to consider when filling out forms........
(media.greatawakening.win)
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It would be nice if docs accepted cash payments, their prices were posted publicly before you accepted any services, and they subtracted out all the government / administrative bullshit from those prices.
A practice that is cash only and does not bill insurance will not have a need to send a patient's information anywhere. Medical histories in particular stay in the office - or at least they stay in mine. As a practitioner, medical histories are a vital part of patient care because I am one that uses them. I hate reinventing the wheel every time a patient comes in and I have to try and remember every detail that was going on with them. My memory is not that good. I envy people that do have that kind of memory for detail - but that is not me.
Usually on the first visit, I will take an extensive medical history because I want as much information as I can get in order to have a better picture of the person I am dealing with. It is not a one size fits all situation. I do not ask stupid woke shit questions like whether someone owns a gun or whether they feel deprived from not getting enough attention or Twinkies when they were young. As far as personal information, I do not ask questions beyond normal pleasantries. If someone wants to take me into their confidence with something personal, that is their decision. I am primarily interested in the medical history, but there are relationships that develop when you care for people.
Just some advice from my side of things - patients can and have been injured because they did not divulge vital information on a medical history that could have avoided the situation. We do not have magical powers to see beyond what a patient tells us - but yet we are somehow supposed to figure it out. It happens more often than what people realize and it has all become part of practicing defensive medicine - we never know what a patient is concealing either willingly or from unintentional forgetfulness. In addition, any patient that tries to hold a practitioner responsible for injuries that were the direct result of conditions not disclosed will find themselves barking up the wrong tree. My attention to medical history detail has saved more than one colleague's asteroids legally that had previously chided me about my anal insistence about those histories that have protected not only myself professionally, but the well being of my patients too. So, at least as far as medical histories are concerned, they do have their use beyond data collection. Sometimes they can save your life.
While I agree with you, it is most annoying when you go to the trouble to fill out your medical history and the practitioner doesn't even bother to read it.
Here's a fine, yet embarrassing example:
The fourth and final reply from the doctors office was "your request has been renewed".
This was not my first bad experience with a PA. One was a skin issue that kept being misdiagnosed and was discovered to be an autoimmune condition that was quickly brought under control by the appropriate doctor. One experience was a misdiagnosed carotid dissection that resulted in two strokes and one was a misdiagnosed heart issue which led to a massive heart attack after passing a stress test less than a month prior. Most recently, I spent 7 months in pain including two trips to the ER, multiple trips to specialists with the last one being the one to discover that I was having some type of spasm. This all would have been resolved had the tests requested by the 2nd ER visit been done but because I was not "due" for the specific test, they were refusing to do it until my PCP finally stepped in at my request.
Sadly, the remaining iota of trust I had in the "medical" community was completely destroyed by their handling of this whole covid-19 debacle.
Damn. I am so sorry to hear about your experiences and I am embarrassed for the lack of professionalism and attentiveness from people in my wheelhouse - it truly does make us all look bad. I will assure you however, that there are those of us out there that do take the time to read those histories and I have taken a lot of grief for it over the years.
Yours were just the type of conditions I did not want to get past me. As an example, I have on occasion requested another biopsy taken on a patient that I was sure was harboring a malignancy after the first came back negative. After taking a whole lot of crap from the pathologists and the insurance companies, I was always found to be right. Fighting insurance companies is a huge problem. What is a provider to do when an insurance company flat refuses to pay for a test or a procedure? I understand your frustration with the system. It is definitely broken and there are many reasons for it. Some in the system give up fighting the battle and just go along to get along. I don't have it in me to do that so I was always seen as a bit of a boat rocker. But it does make you weary over the years and many of my colleagues gave up the fight and retired. I am currently on the sidelines myself until this current insanity passes. So I really do feel bad for those that are forced to navigate the waters with the Covid madness.
Autoimmune diseases can be very difficult to diagnose as you have to know where to look. There are hundreds of them. RA, Lupus, Hashimoto's, Sjogren's, and the like, are easier to nail down, but some are very rare and unfortunately can take time to finally diagnose. They can present in all kinds of different ways. My mother had an autoimmune disease of her hair follicles that required a very specific biopsy that only a few labs in the country could do. Of course we had to wait for insurance approval which they denied the first go around. A provider then has to submit a narrative in order to justify the procedure that the bean counters had to approve. Pile up enough of those in a day and you could spend a great deal of off time filling the paperwork out. There were many a day I spent after hours doing just such paperwork to get my patient the treatment or test I thought they needed.
By the time we got the diagnosis confirmed by the pathologist, my mom had lost a large portion of her hair. Most just kept telling her it was her thyroid. We kept looking for answers until we found them. I knew it wasn't her thyroid but the lichen planopilaris was not on my radar. Other than her scalp and her thyroid, she is 89 and in excellent health. She can actually kick a soccer ball around with her great grand children. I keep her out of the her doc's office except to refill her scripts. She doesn't need to worry about the Rona because she takes HCQ for her scalp. Go figure.
Thanks for sharing and I do hope you have managed to find some decent providers. Good luck and be well fren.
Cash / Direct Payment Friendly Practices The below physicians will accept payment directly from their patients without involvement of the insurance company or government. AAPS is providing this list for information purposes only. The information contained in the list was supplied by and is the responsibility of the physician/practice not AAPS. https://aaps.wufoo.com/reports/m5p6z0/
This is by design, Trump was going to require hospitals post their prices. They never tell you the cost.when I try I get sent to the phone tree and billing department. When I do get a person on the phone they say it depends on the classification the doctor applies to the service? See a non-answer answer. Tada, you still have no idea what you are being charged.