Posted on 03/22/2013 12:52:54 PM PDT by My Favorite Headache
Deep breath.
I am going to write this in the calmest way possible. I am not here to air out dirty laundry but just like my last post back in Jan about Obamacare and law enforcement officials and doctors...this one leaps another level.
I went to a doctor this morning for a follow up to an appointment I went to at the end of January. During my last appointment other than just getting some prescriptions refilled we went over some MRI results and talked about a different course of action regarding an injury.
This morning I show up for a follow up to see how the new scripts are going and what not...I get to the front desk and the doctor's assistant says to me "You have an outstanding balance of $75.00", I said no that is impossible...I pay everything up front for my appointments. I pay cash up front for any visit.
Then she lays it on me.
"Your doctor went 13 minutes over time last visit and you owe $75.00 for it."
I said like hell I do...I paid for a full visit last time like I do every time and why should I suddenly pay more?
Quote "As of January..and the change to the medical laws and rules and the "Affordable Health Care Act", we have to by law charge after 15 minutes for a separate appointment because the first 15 minutes are considered "Prescription Recheck". If anything goes over the 15 minutes it becomes "Therapeutic Visit". If the doctor does not account for his time with you he will be fined $600.00 and he must account for every single thing that goes on behind that door."
She then puts a 2013 medical code book and shows me that there were hundreds of pages of code they were still learning and that they were told to expect a new bigger book in December.
I was furious at the fact that there was no notice of this anywhere and why in the hell am I just being told this now and not when I left the office the last time?
The assistant said "The notices are on the door over there".......................the door to a closet that nobody reads really because it had about 17 pieces of different things written in various sized print. By law all the office has to do is post it but not tell the patients about it.
They have stopped accepting new patients..FOREVER. They have had to close another office they had 65 miles away because since the Newton shootings...there are landlords that do not want to have anything from neurologists to psychologists to psychiatrists (anything brain related) in their building in case "one of them snaps".
I was told to expect it to become much, much, much worse and that people are just not showing up for appointments any longer.
Not that it matters but this was for a neurologist who sees me for a fall from a 2 story house.
My employer doesn't offer health insurance...they can't afford to. So I am compensated more to make up for what they can as far as me handling my own medical care.
A $75.00 extra fee. If he didn't report it he would be brought up for medical fraud and the $600.00 fine would put him on a probation.
I hate typing about my own personal life like this but you know what...this is the kind of thing that needs to be known. My doctor said his hands are tied. He tries every route he can to avoid billing cash patients more and tries to do a discount but has been warned if he does that then he will be charged with fraud as well. That is why he stopped seeing new patients so he won't be shopped.
He said psychiatrists and psychologists are going through some serious problems right now and they are completely turning all cash only. No insurance at all.
My venting is over.
My mom got a letter from her doc 2 weeks ago saying he would need to charge more, and drop many patients... I paid it immediately to get her on the list. Obamacare is going to hurt a lot of people.
Crazy stuff is on the way.
Cash only. No insurance. No credit cards. No checks.
(avoid the hassles and the extra charges and just practice medicine without the government)
> My venting is over.
Au contraire, mon ami.
I fear the venting is just beginning.
If the wrong people get mad enough, there’s likely to be some ventilating of public office holders that voted for this abomination.
Vent as much as you need to, I’m sure we all learned something more about 0bamacare today. They are running doctors out of business an that is tragic. Who wants to go to school all of those years, rack up that kind of debt, take on all of these other issues, along with the potential for malpractice, etc, etc.,. We all better learn to take care of ourselves more...we are going to need it.
I cannot even begin to express my contempt for these politicians, certainly not in polite company.
I wish you well in your ongoing care. and thank you for the rant, it certainly is an eye opener and heads up.
This, my FRiend, is only the beginning ... :/
Multiply your anger by about 300 Million and then we’ll see what happens in 2014 mid-terms.......
Get ready for a blackmarket/underground economy for medical services.
Au contraire, mon ami.
...they should be, this way he couldn't go any deeper in your wallet
You have every right to rant!!!!!!!
And I am sorry to say it will get worse.
My scripts went up, because of obamaCare, some scripts are no longer covered, premiums went up because of obamaCare,my husbands premiums went up and his coverage went down with some service no longer covered.
In 2014, when obamaCare if fully implemented.........there will be hell on earth here.
(I am also sorry your doctor is put in the position he is put in.......)
Confused. Why, if you are contracting privately with your Dr for services, are they telling you OCA regs apply? Or do you purchase pvt insurance on your own?
At my regularly scheduled checkup I had to wait 1 hr 10 minutes before I saw my doctor — this was not even in the lobby, it was in the receiving room. This did not include the 20 minutes early they wanted me to come in prior to the appointment.
Seething, and remembering something somebody told me before, I wrote out an invoice for $90, when paying my co-payment of $45 after the visit, I handed the administrator the $90 invoice.
Hilarity ensues ..... but I didn’t have to make my copayment.
Now I have to talk to them about the $2.47 they sent to collections from a prior visit.
In 2014, USA will probably come crumbling down.. just as the Marxists wanted :/
> Lol.. looks like you saw my other post on the other thread ;)
Actually, I didn’t, but great minds do think alike.
:)
Prepare for more of the “Silly Season” insults to reason as more and more of these
unintelligible rules are written, offered under ‘guidance’,and enforced.
Under the new rules , your medical history is no longer your own ~ it belongs to the government.
Also , your personal medical history is just as safe and secure as is the infrastructure ,
until some ‘hacker’ cracks into the system.
Isn’t government control wonderful ? /sarc
Where were all the complaints and concerns when the Demorats advocated the British Healtcare System,
and/ or espoused the Canadian system of healthcare ?
Obviously overlooked by the bi-partisan media ..? /sarc
Not notifying patients in advance about billing changes like the one you described is a very poor practice and unfair to patients. Posting a notice where no one will read it is not adequate notification.
Soon millions of others will be impacted by the same stupid regulation and unfortunately NONE OF THEM WILL BLAME OBAMA even though this is the result of something called OBAMACARE.
How much are you paying for heath care insurance?
I was paying well over $5,000 a year last time I had COBRA and said they hell with this. (6 years ago)
Since then I have been paying cash, including for a broken arm for one child and an emergency room visit for myself and I still think I am about $20,000 ahead
If I get a catastrophic illness I do not expect anyone else to pay for it. I told the kids just dig a hole in the backyard and roll me in.
I am tired of playing this game.
Between DoctorYourself.com and Dr. Campbell’s Daily Dose, I’m managing okay. If I could just ditch the blood pressure drugs, I’d be free of it all. It’s sort of a tether I’d like to be rid of. Medicare’s been paying my annual office visit for a year or so; but I’d been paying it up to then. They gave me a “self-pay” discount, but not now. I liked it better when I paid and sure won’t keep them a minute more than absolutely necessary. - Now, the NP sits with a laptop and logs in everything about me. I’ve told her I don’t want all those fancy tests and x-rays; I pay a bit extra for thermograms instead of mammograms; can’t stand the mashing and prodding of mammograms. It’ll have to do; they can’t find everything with the best of tests.
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