I've no patience for doctors who get paid well to do what they're doing, then sneer at their patients for coming in for various and assorted ailments.
I hope you didn't think I was sneering. My patient had a legit complaint and needed my advise and treatment.
I was more pointing out the fact that I juxtaposed my thoughts of this patient with the people of Haiti, and realized how lucky we are if we only have a case of tennis elbow.
(However, I do get peeved when patients go to the Emergency room for a cold, especially when my office is open and I have time to fit them in. The typical patient to do this is a Medicaid patient, as there is no disincentive for them to do this...so the state ends up paying 5-10 times more for the same service.)
Well that makes me feel better, glad you weren't sneering (great word, that).
Medicaid patients are often indigent, frequently don't even know who their doctors are (and it's not their fault, the system is VERY complicated, hard to navigate, and their primary providers change all the time). Add to that the fact that they often have to wait for ridiculously long periods of time to get in to see their doctors.
I field calls all the time from frantic clients who are treated like shit by the office staff at the offices that have AGREED to take them on, who put them through idiotic hoops (right now they're confused by the new system which allows them to look up their coverage...cards are obsolete,but the clinics are turning away patients because they don't have cards. We don't even issue cards on a regular basis anymore, and the card says right on it "this does not guarantee coverage". It's just an id card with their name and recipient ID on it, which the offices can access online). Or they DON'T turn them away, don't check their coverage, then try to bill months later only to find that hey, the plan the patient has won't cover visits to that office. Then I get frantic calls from my clients who are freaked out because they're getting billed for things that happened months ago, and angry calls from the clinics who say, "No, I didn't check coverage at the time, but we're going to keep billing them anyway and ruin their credit and take them to court" true story. Then I have to look up the administrative rules where it says it's the job of the CLINIC to verify coverage at the time of treatment, and if they don't, and if they don't get the patient to sign a specific waiver saying they will pay for that specific treatment on that specific day, the clinic eats the cost. They can't compel the patient to pay.
It's just bad communication and piss poor training all around. The office accountants tell me, "it's our policy to require a medical card" and it's my job to tell them, "you signed up for this, and you CANNOT REQUIRE A CARD, and you CANNOT BILL for services you provided to our client if you failed to verify coverage and didn't get a (very specifically worded) waiver."
For the guy with the elbow..."It hurts when I do this..."
"Then don't do that."
Problem solved, hehe.
