Posted on 01/06/2014 6:16:12 PM PST by lightman
South-central Pennsylvania has been clobbered by a nasty cold, flu, or combination thereof for all of this brief new year. So much so that the state is listed as "widespread" on the flu map published by the Weather Channel.
I get that.
What I don't get is why it took my adult son nearly twelve hours to obtain a Z-pack. He did the responsible thing by calling his primary physician (a truly unmercenary practitioner, who works solo and sees many of the poor who others shun) early this morning...around 10 AM.
The overworked physicians office--I did say this flu thing was widespread--did not have time to call the pharmacy until nearly 6 PM. That's eight hours. The pharmacy was running nearly three hours behind on filling new scrips--again, because of the widespread flu.
So now we are 11 hours past the initial call to the PCP, with another hour to go, according to the information from the pharmacy.
Now you may be wondering, how is this the fault of Øbamacare?
Simple.
Øbamacare does NOTHING to address the medical billing system.
The medical billing system (to any insurance, be it Medicare, Medicaid, or private insurance) provides NO financial incentive to physicians for issuing prescriptions or renewals by phone, nor for phone consultations, nor for email communication.
To borrow a phrase from the legal profession, the only "billable hours" are for office visits and hospital visits. Period.
No incentive for delivering health care through any technology.
And certainly no incentive for doing so in a timely manner.
The market has failed.
And so has Øbummercare.
It's called Mexico. A place that is properly in every other respect a 3rd-world country.
Markets don't fail. What you're describing is not a market.
God Bless your beautiful brain for understanding that aspect. This year will be a never ending nightmare of insurance billing hell.
I also see an ENT and there are 7 doctors in that clinic and I could probably see one of them on short notice but they too would not give out a prescription unless it was a refill, if they had not seen me.
As others have told you, influenza is viral and antibiotics will not help it. What they will do is cure the bacterial infections that come along with and after the virus has made you very very sick. I hope he is able to get antibiotics in time to ward off the bacterial infection.
The Democrats bought baloney, what do you mean it is not a market :-)
We were in Central America on a cruise a couple months ago. The pharmacies in Belize are incredible. Let’s just say that Clan Lurker’s emergency medical kit is extremely well stocked now.
You should consider yourself *extremely* lucky to have a doctor who will prescribe over the phone for anything.
The PCP would not be out of line (before or after ACA) to tell you that an office visit and exam was necessary before prescribing.
From some of the Drudge reports, it might have already happened.
Yep...that's exactly what he was trying to do, based on several past experiences.
We've both spent enough time around dairy cattle to be very aware of antiobiotic resistance.
We are just recovering from the GA version of whatever this grodoo is. We stockpile our own anitbiotics and its a good thing because I called for an appt at our doctor on a thurs and the receptionist told me no open appts til the next Monday. I told her we would either be dead or cured by then. We just started popping Cipro and it really brought us out of it.
As we go forward over the cliff you need to stockpile medicines as the healthcare and availability are going to be bad.
I’m glad your son finally got his Z-pac.
Viruses can crap out the immune system thereby enabling opportunistic bacteria to multiply causing a secondary bacterial infection in the respiratory tract. These secondary infections can cause bacterial pneumonia quickly when the immune system is already compromised fighting off a viral infection. Antibiotics prevent this from occurring.
No arguement there.
Unfortunately the youngsters are not going to get uneasy about granny’s premature passing.
Well, strangely enough, Zithro won’t help your son fight off a flu VIRUS. Now if he has a bacterial pneumonia Zithro may work but I suggest levofloxacin.
They have single handedly destroyed the economy, the financial system, the healthsystem, the energy system the judicial system, foreign policy and the leadership of the free world. It is amazing to me that this was done while the very ones who we depended on to protect our system stood by sitting on thier hands and said nothing. Incredible! Im numb like most
“Zithro may work...”
(Maybe as like a placebo.)
What’s the stockpile version of a Z-pack? Any idea? Thanks.
“I don’t mind dying; I just don’t want to be there when it happens.” - Woody Allen
He needs Tamaflu not Z-Pack. I was diagnosed with Flu at Thanksgiving. Had a nose swab test. Doc gave me a script for Z-Pack but told me to wait an hour before I filled it. He would let me know if I had flu. I did. He called in Tamaflu for me. 10 pills with my insurance cost $115. Best money I have ever spent to make me feel better. After 1st pill, I started to come back to life. (I was feeling like a kicked dog)
petco has some great stuff too……:O)
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