I hate Dr’s and the Medical profession.

Here is my story. My daughter rolled her ankle and fell down a few steps. Here Ankle was really messed up.
She hade had a previously surgery on this Ankle to have a band put in to replace / support badly damaged ligaments. So she contacted the original podiatrist / surgeon. She was told it most likely had not damaged the band to start with a local Dr. The local Dr. looked at it and ordered Xrays. After looking at the Xrays the Dr. said he could not see anything broken. She was referred to a local podiatrist to see if there was ligament or tendon Damage. This Dr. after hearing of the prior surgery ordered a Ultrasound. After getting the images she could not see any damage to anything. After not getting better my daughter contacted her original surgeon and she made a appointment with her. She said she would need to have a MRI done to check the original band replacement. Here the Ultrasound would not show any damage to the Band or anchors. After getting the results back the surgeon calls her to tell her she had indeed broken the original band ( Something the Dr. said would be almost impossible ) She scheduled a appointment with my daughter and us this time to discuss options. turns out the only option is to have surgery again to replace the broken band and also fix another torn ligament and possibly also band that one. Here is where things start to get me rather mad. She scheduled another appointment prior to the surgery ( Today ) This can not count as the pre op. So she has to have that next week. Then the surgery, followed up by at least 3 follow up appointments and probably therapy. Why could she not made the 1st appointment with the podiatrist / Surgeon who would have ordered the correct test in the 1st place, Why could not her appointment today also count as her pre op. To me it is just the medical profession all making sure as many people as possible can get paid all along the way. Sadly this will meet my out of pocket cost right at the end of the year. Only to start all over again on Jan. 1st for next year. End of rant !

good luck to her!! I have a bad ankle to I live.. torn tendons and all

Good thing you have medical insurance

Youbetcha wrote:

Good thing you have medical insurance

Sadly its a high out of pocket one. When we picked it we were not planning on our daughter being back on our insurance or I may have picked a different option. I may have to rethink that prior to next year.

i was told once by a Dr after a discussion about formulary and non formulary meds….

his answer…….the Ins companies decide the rules……and for the most part there are medical professionals working with Ins companies dictating them rules!!!!

also until you have a referral by a MD….Ins wont pay for specialist appts and further treatment!!!

Can she wait till after the new year to get it done so you have free health care all year?
North Memorial charged my wife $100 for being a new patient. Just stupid

All about the almighty dollar. We are so fortunate to have insurance companies dictating how our medical companies operate and use common sense

Good luck to your daughter! I had an equally frustrating experience with a Dr. My regular physician did blood work and didn’t like some of the results so referred me to a specialist who I did a virtual visit with. My Dr told me what she thought the problem was and I told this Dr that and she said no and she didn’t even have any of my medical records.

Hope things go better for your daughter Thumper.

Health insurance, coverage, etc in this county is a complete joke.

Last week i had a referral with an orthopedic specialist for arthritis on my right ankle. After he looked at my x~rays he referred my to the ankle specialist for another appointment.
So I went to a specialist to get referred to a special specialist.
WTF?

Eelpoutguy wrote:

Last week i had a referral with an orthopedic specialist for arthritis on my right ankle. After he looked at my x~rays he referred my to the ankle specialist for another appointment.
So I went to a specialist to get referred to a special specialist.
WTF?

unfortunately EPG thats how its trending……most docs are going the specialized route…..treating one thing…….like your ankle…….some simply do heart stuff……and even then they have a specialist that only does certain procedures.

they say i have heart murmur….i was told IF i need it replaced they have a team just for that procedure!!!

Insurance companies are the root of all these problems. The doctors I know aren’t any happier about it than the patients. Hope it all works out. We had a really expensive year medically as well.

Fishthumper, you have my sympathy. I really hope your daughter’s ankle gets fixed correctly and everything gets resolved.

My Dad has recently been through a mess. It started with a bursting appendix over a year ago. He was in to see a Dr this early summer about some lingering heart issues from a couple stint surgeries. While there, a new Dr read up on his charts and asked him about the aortic aneurysm that was listed, and whether or not he got it fixed. He was shocked as he was never told about it. So, they did an ultrasound and discovered it was 5.3 centimeters and causing pain and potential serious problems, including what he was currently dealing with, and could get to life threatening quickly. So, they ordered a couple more tests and setup 2 appointments and then a surgery date. Well, those appointments and tests happened but the Dr didn’t follow through with anything else for reports. So, insurance didn’t want to pay for anything. He got a new Dr that ironed out all the insurance but had to start over with all new tests. I think he had 2 new ultrasounds, 2 new scans, and various meetings with specialists. I’m not kidding when I say I believe it was around 20 appointments total. Meanwhile pills got the aneurysm to shrink just below 5 centimeters which the insurance company then deemed to be unnecessary for surgery. After a couple more appointments the Dr got the go ahead and he finally had surgery last week on Thursday for something originally discovered last September and deemed high risk this June.
He’s recovering now, but not the happiest.

Sorry to hear about the chaos and what your daughter has been through. Getting more questions than answers is always the worst. I hate uncertainty and it’d pi$$ me off more if it involved one of my daughters.

This serves as a good reminder to fully fund your HSAs and HCSPs in any way possible. It’s crazy expensive to have anything done or checked on in the medical field, and is only getting more expensive by the day.

The medical field is a nightmare money sucking monopoly. I’m glad i have awesome benefits through the union.

Much bureaucracy
Little common sense
Good luck.

I’ve had my share of medical issues over the last 15 years. Most importantly they were able to fix the problems and I’m still out on Pool 2 fishing Walleyes. That’s the upside. The downside is billing and insurance and scheduling and all that. I’ve had more issues with medical bills than everything else added together, by far. I’ve never had any kind of screw up with NSP or the trash guy. But every single medical bill has to be carefully scrutinized for errors. They are either grossly incompetent or outright crooks. Thankfully I married an accountant who has the tenacity of a bulldog and will hound them to death. And she likes to fish, so I have that going for me.

SR

i agree Steve…… this new age of the billing process just sucks. everyone wanting to and trying to force you to go paperless.

i have a mychart account and there always pushing you to go that route. i use it somewhat but never fore the billing. we have demanded bills come in the mail……i dont trust unline crap much…..

next thing you know we get a letter in the mail from debt collectors….we call they say we sent you a bill………..BUT we never get it. its a friggin vicious cycle. we call the clinic and rag on there azz big time……oh we sent it to your address…..BS……either that or the USPS really sucks that bad.

Steve brought up garbage bills etc…..i have the same issue with the water bill. city hall is 1 block south of the post office. the post office is roughly 8 blocks east of me……and i cant get my freaking water bill here. they both play the blame game…somehow the disconnect bill seems to get here!!

Agree that insurance is the root of the problems with medicine right now. My docs and providers are outstanding (I’ve winnowed through them over time and gotten rid of those I don’t like). Business offices and insurance are a major PITA. However, when i need a doc for something important, they take great care of me.

i guess we can bitch about all this, but i’ll gladly deal with it vs what i hear goes on north of the border in canada. being put on a list for medical procedures and having to wait just doesnt seem like a good way based on how bad you condition is.

in st cloud we had a heart surgeon you did my bypass surgeries. he did my bypass as will as my dads. he was canadian………he came down to practice in the states because of the way they did it north of the border.

he retired and went back north!

Common denominator is the insurance companies dictating to the doctors . I have a nurse practitioner as my doctor , he has no desire to be a Doctor he said regular doctors spend an inordinate amount of time just on paper work for insurance companies . Thats even with doctor assistants . He wants no part of that . So he stays a nurse practitioner . Less paperwork , evidently .

Don Meier wrote:

Common denominator is the insurance companies dictating to the doctors .

This is the problem. Insurance companies have put themselves in the position of dictating care because of protocols they put in place.

In the case of most conditions the doctor has no choice in the course of care. He must follow the insurance company’s prescribed steps or the whole procedure won’t be paid for.

Anytime people encounter something that doesn’t make sense it’s usually not the doctor, nine times out of 10 it’s the doctor being forced to follow the insurance companies protocol.

Case in point Mrs grouse had a tear in her labrum inside the hip. There is absolutely no way this type of injury can heal itself. The only treatment is surgery.

However.. guess what the insurance company mandates as the protocol for treatment? That’s right she had to go to physical therapy for a month first. What could physical therapy do for this condition? Absolutely nothing except I suppose the insurance company would argue it proves by not working that the condition is what the doctor diagnosed and thus moving on to surgery is justifiable. Which is a completely stupid rationale and waste both time and money.

Grouse I’ve known people with similar situations of an obvious need for surgery. Insurance makes them try therapy, and in the mean time the injury starts trying to heal itself… making the surgery that much more difficult.