So I went to a dermatologist. He was thorough. No issues. Still, I may switch my GP.
If they don't actually DO anything, then they are just squeezing money out of you, waiting for you to die. It's quite pointless.
The skin cancer issue is my only health issue. Had a very small basal cell removed five years ago. And the annual visit to the dermatologist gets shorter and shorter. He keeps blasting “precancerous” stuff off my face, but ought to be looking between my toes, which he doesn’t bother to do. I need a new dermatologist.
You really need to be careful with skin cancer, as you no doubt know. My friend, whose husband is an MD, lost part of her hand to it, when docs misdiagnosed that “mole” for two years.
Actually, although your primary are doc seems to be a jerk (IMHO), I would never suggest trusting the opinion of anyone but a seasoned dermatologist with regards skin cancer screening - and I wouldn’t trust the dermatologist either if they weren’t keeping a pictorial record of any moles etc. that you might have. There are too many things that look like ‘other things’ etc.
Most GPs are totally unqualified to do that sort of work anyway. They look at something on your skin and really have no idea what it is, and whether it is normal or not. Mine couldn’t tell simple seborrheic keratosis when he saw it.
I have an excellent dermatologist here in Manhattan, who is by no means cheap. He will glance at something and tell you exactly what it is.
Squeezing money out of you? You pay your deductible and copay whether or not he does anything or not. Consider it a service charge that barely covers the overhead of the practice (office administration, receptionist, file clerk, billing personnel, etc.) Then the doc/practice bills insurance for whatever they can. After contractual adjustments, the actual payment averages about 25 to 30% of what was billed. What overhead was not covered by the co-pay and deductible (providing it wasn’t already met)is covered by the insurance payment. What’s left over goes to pay the doc. As insurance payments decrease (and refusals to pay increase), the doc has to see more people in a given time to try to keep income near the same, very unlikely that the guy is going to be increasing his income... Anyway, the more people he has to see, the less time he’s going to be able to spend with each patient. Difficult to do what the average person would consider to be a complete or adequate “screening exam” in the 15 minutes (more likely 10 minutes) allocated for each patient. Sure he could spend more time with each patient, but he won’t be paid for it. BTW, there’s not a “skin cancer screening exam” as such, so he wouldn’t be able to bill for one anyway. He would either bill for a new or return patient visit. Since you and everyone else who uses private insurance or government programs to pay for their medical care, you have abdicated your payment decisions to the payer. As such you don’t any longer have much to say about anything, other than jumping from one doc to the next, but you’ll find it’s pretty much the same everywhere, with the exception of a cash-only practice, where you pay the doc up front, and receive a receipt, and insurancr billing form you can fill out and send in for a refund (such as the insurance company is willing to pay). In that case, at least you’d be aware of what your insurance company is giving you for what you are paying them in premiums...
Sorry for the length of my sermon...
(BTW, I’m a doc)
I have known my dermatologist since we were both in college many decades ago. I was in for something and asked him to also check my back for any suspicious moles. I took off my shirt and it took him 2 seconds to tell me I was ok. I absolutely trust him. So, maybe your GP knows what he is doing.
If a family doc spends more than about 7 minutes per patient visit these days, he’s not able to make a decent living. More than 10 minutes, and he has to close the doors and fire everyone.
I had breast cancer so wound up with specialists for everything. I have found that I get better care using specialists. I use my GP for normal stuff but specialists for everything else. Wish I had done it many years ago.
I have:
GP
Oncologist
Dermatologist
gastroenterologist
Cardiologist
And a surgeon.
They are all great and I wouldn’t trade one of them.