Doctor Hunt: Practicing What I Preach

I’m proud of my husband and the reason holds a good lesson for us all….

Over the past six months or so, our experiences with our family doctor’s practice have been less than acceptable. First, Hubby contacted their “prescription refill hotline” about three weeks before his arthritis prescription ran out. He needed a new prescription and knew it would take some time to get it….but…. two weeks later he had to call them again. Then the next day, then the next. He was told they had called in his prescription to our pharmacy but — no — the pharmacy had no record. Eventually, because he had run out and was in pain, he stood at the pharmacy counter while they called the doctor’s office. Not right.

Turns out that part of the problem was that his doctor had left the practice! Of course, no one bothered mentioning that, nor had they bothered to tell him he had been “reassigned” to a new doctor — a 30-something woman who I’m sure is a fine doctor — but not for my 50-something husband who would prefer a male doctor!

Hubby is not a happy camper.

I ran into my own problems. I go for an annual checkup each fall. I made my appointment a couple months ago and was told to go in a week or so ahead for a blood draw. OK. I asked whether I needed to fast for the blood draw. Nope, I was told. That’s not necessary.

So, Monday, I called the doctor’s office to make sure all the paperwork had been done so I could go to the lab for the blood draw on Tuesday. “It sure is,” I was told, “They are a part of our system, so they have all your paperwork in the computer.” I asked again — are you sure I don’t need to fast? No — no need.

So I headed to the lab about 3 PM Tuesday. You guessed it. Yes, they found my records — but — the labwork request had been cancelled. Huh? Long story short — not only did I have to go back to the doctor’s office to straighten it out, but it turns out that yes, I did need to fast for the blood draw!

My doctor happened to walk into the reception area of the office while I was there. She asked why I was there (knowing, I guess, that I had no appointment) — and I told her I was there to straighten out the blood work fiasco. I asked her– fast or no fast? “Of course you have to fast, unless you want to be unhappy with the results!” she replied flippantly as she turned around and marched out of the room.

OK — so now I’ve gone from annoyance to ticked-off.

So these are two VERY BASIC services that require no rocket science whatsoever to handle. If they can’t do any better than this with the basics, how can we be sure they will handle anything of any consequence correctly?

So Hubby and I decided together we would begin to look for a new practice to move to — and yesterday Hubby began checking with our insurer to see who else is on their list of providers.

He narrowed his search down to a half dozen doctors — and then — he started researching them. He didn’t ask me for advice, instead, he just started poking around the internet. Sure enough, he found information that one of the doctors on his list has been fined $2,500 for some kind of squirrely billing practices. (I translate that as the possibility of Medicare Fraud — but I don’t know that for sure.)

Our next steps are to begin asking others whether they know any of these doctors to see if we can find happy patients. We’re not really in any hurry — thankfully — because we are both healthy and we’ve had all the 50-something tests we’re supposed to have, etc.

I’ll keep you posted on the great doctor hunt. Just wanted you to know that it can be done, and will be done.

Gotta let you know that yes — in our home — we practice what I preach.

Paging Marcus Welby!

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Trisha Torrey
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