Update in the best medical system in the world....My primary care doctor has run out of ideas on how to diagnose me. He says I need an infectious disease specialist who understands Lyme disease. (Already tried neurology and rheumatology to see if something else is causing my symptoms) The doctor he referred me to will not see me because one of the blood tests does not meet his criteria. (This is fine with me because he is not using the right blood test anyway according to other specialists.) So now what? Well, my spouses employer offers the services of a registered nurse who helps navigate finding the right physician for insured individuals. (I suspect this is a cost saving method, but can also be quite beneficial to the customer). They give me three names (after screwing up the communication with me, resulting in a couple of days delay, of course, but hey this has been going on for over 6 months so why am I whining about that?). Of the three names, two are in network and one is not. One of the in-network docs has written a new book on Lyme disease so that seems promising....but no, he is not taking new patients. However if I can manage to hear the long email address on the recording, write it down correctly and want to send them an email, then MAYBE I can get on their wait list. No, I could not capture the email adress, it turns out. The other in-network doctor will only see me if my primary MD calls him in person to discuss the case ahead of time. So MAYBE, my docs office says, I can expect to hear something back by next Tuesday or Wednesday about whether or not this new doctor will see me. Meanwhile, I call my insurance company to find out if any of the costs of an out of network specialist would be covered... Yes! My insurance will pay 40% of usual and customary fees but any amount over that must be paid out of pocket and those amounts do not apply to the policy maximum out of pocket cap. Will ANY doctor in America tell you in advance how their fees compare to some random insurance companys fee schedule? No. They will not. They will say, well, we cannot spend time or other resources on studying your insurance benefits to give you a prior estimate of your cost of services. Instead, they expect full fees up front and then leave you to argue with your insurance company. Perhaps this would be easier to navigate if I felt well and was not having problems processing information. I cannot take notes and listen at the same time so I need things to be repeated over and over. But then if I was navigating executive functions easily I would NOT NEED AN FING doctor to tell me why the MRIs shows weird brain spots and I have a strange rash and I have trouble walking sometimes and my nerves shoot searing pain randomly and joints swell up, also randomly. And sometimes my right hip cant hold up my leg and bending over WILL cause me to be weak for the rest of the day. MAYBE I SHOULD NOT GO TO SEE THE Italian film on assisted suicide tonight after all......
Posted on: Fri, 11 Apr 2014 19:37:55 +0000
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