Posted on 12/09/2014 3:19:18 PM PST by SWAMPSNIPER
I never got around to posting about my October trip to the hospital, I was out in four days, just another lung bug, and things were popping here on the forum and I just dug in.
I had already fired the doctor who screwed up, almost fried my kidneys and caused a case of gout with too many diuretics.
The insurance plan assigned a new doctor anyway so when I landed in the ER I gave his name. He never showed up, but the one I fired did. I told him to go away and 10 minutes later his sidekick showed up and asked me what the problem was. I told him, he got upset and went storming out of the room. It wasn't long before another doctor showed up, said "I understand the problem, you are right, you haven't been getting good care."
He took over, I never did see the guy shown on the insurance card, and doctor #3 eventually cleared me to check out. I had an appointment for a follow up in early November, overslept and missed the bus. I rescheduled for today, walked in this AM, and the receptionist told me that the doctor sold the practice and they didn't accept my insurance anymore.
I had only enough of my meds for 6 days, no way to get signed on with another doctor, and I turned loose on them.
I ended up with some free samples, enough for another month.
Here I am again, no doctor! I've been through 2 Muslims and a Hindu, the guy on my insurance card is a Mexican and I really don't have much hope.
Maybe it will work out, I'm too damned mad right now to deal with it.
Got enough meds to keep my lungs working for a while so I'll get by.
My take on the whole mess is that a multi tiered medical system is developing and a whole bunch of us are gonna get stuck with mediocre doctors. I'm gonna hang in as long as I can just to spite them!
What's your next step?
Welcome to new America....The land of decline...
Ya shoulda got a govenrment job, with those gold plated retirement pensions and top shelf med benefits...
If absolutely necessary, find a vet. I’m serious.
Once upon a time this country had among the best medical care available. Now you are getting third world practice.
“Good enough...”
“My take on the whole mess is that a multi tiered medical system is developing.”
Generally with most things in life, you get why you pay for. We’ve had a multi-tiered medical system for a long time; just ask a Medicaid patient. You also should keep in mind that your doctor can fire you (with a 30 day notice).
How much do you pay for your insurance?
I am so sorry this is happening to you. I hope you can get it worked out. My mother had something similar between the ages of 95 and 101. All Indian and English as a 2nd language Chinese. She was hard of hearing and couldn’t understand a word they said. Plus, they were abrupt with her and didn’t answer her questions.
I wish I had some good advice, Swampy. Can you call your insurance company,explain the situation and have them help you find one? Even if you don’t “like” the one they recommend, you can at least have your script filled (hopefully for 6+ months) till you do find one. I will say a prayer for you, hon. I know this is stressful.
When we attended First Baptist is Dothan, Alabama, all the Sunday School teachers in our dept. were Doctors. I suspect they were good ones too.
Fast forward around 30 years and I have to take Daddy to the emergency room at night. To my surprise our old Sunday School teacher who was a top surgeon, was the Dr. on call.
It turned out he was retired but was filling in at the small town hospital because they needed him. He told me he was still teaching Sunday School too.
BTW, we've both had two eyes worth of cataract surgery, and she's had semi-outpatient leg artery work, and I've had two gut surgeries....so we've had plenty of opportunity to "take it in the a**", but have yet to.
Good luck! Oh, our monthly dues as a couple is just a bit over 300 bucks; well worth it to us so far.
I feel your pain. I moved the family 50 miles out of town to insure that we had an American Family Doctor Practitioner (that spoke English).
In town, all you get are what you described. Any chance you can get on a private insurance plan?
Found this link this morning, scrounged around for the ingredients and even though the ingredients were old, made the concoction for laryngitis. Give it a try!!!! I had my voice back in a few hours. Going to drink another batch in a few minutes. Definitely worth copying down. I’ve told all my family and friends and now my freeper friends.
PS It isn’t the tastiest drink in the world but tolerable!!!!
It is frustrating not having a doctor you can trust. Get the name of every physician or practice that is on your insurance program. It may be something they have to mail to you. Then get with some of your friends and see if any of them use a good doctor who is on that list.
Failing that, find an Urgent Care center that is on your insurance and do an initial with them and get them to recommend a doc that they like to coordinate with. They will know someone who has moved up from the hourly crap of Urgent Care and it should be an okay guy.
As an aside, I have known a couple of really good Pilipino docs — they all grow up with English.
Looks like you’ve had more than your share of access to doctors and healthcare.
It turned out he was retired but was filling in at the small town hospital because they needed him. He told me he was still teaching Sunday School too.
________________________________
Now that’s the town to live in and the church to go to!
The EXEMPT in Congress and ALL Moslems are
not under this travesty of death, theft, and perversion
created by Romney and Obama, by Gruber.
It does seem to be getting more difficult to find/keep doctors.
In Oct 2013, I had my regular quarterly blood test. My Doctor follow-up was 2 days later. On the day of the follow-up, I got a call that that doctor was not longer at the clinic. I had been his patient for about 10 years.
The clinic had 2 other internists, one of which had started only a few months earlier. I made an appointment with the other, as I had been his patient for a few weeks a decade earlier.
A couple of months ago, I got a letter that the other doctor (not mine) was no longer with the clinic. He was replaced with an ARPN.
==
I tried for 2 months to find out what Medicare Advantage plans the clinic would be taking next year. I never could get an answer, as the office worker couldn’t get the business manager to respond to her queries about the insurace plans.
I went ahead and rolled over my 2014 plan for 2015 — and hope they take it next year, as the deadline for choosing was Dec. 7.
==
My doctor who left in 2013 told me during a previous exam that he was frustrated because of all the insurance forms and government paperwork doctors had to keep up with.
He apparently went to an area hospital system, where he is considered an employee with a regular schedule. That seems to be a new trend for frustrated doctors.
Problem is, once you're on Medicare, that becomes your primary insurance, and the insurance you retired with and still pay for becomes secondary, and covers very little. At least it still covers my scripts with a co-pay.
I don’t know what to say. My doctor is a hottie from Peru, and she’s good to go.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.