A friend of mine had a hard time getting in to see her doctor for an urgent visit last week. Reeling from an unexpected and sudden family upset, she was depressed and anxious, unable to sleep or function, and her therapist was advising an antidepressant. She called her family doc, who works at a large hospital-based multispecialty group, and told the woman at the call center that she wanted to see the doctor on an urgent matter. She was given an appointment 6 weeks in the future.
Summoning her courage, my friend told the woman her story – and that she was really worried about herself and did not think she could wait that long.
“Sorry, that is the best I can do” was the reply.
Increasingly upset, my friend told the woman that if she had to wait that long, she just might kill herself in the interim.
“That’s your choice, Ma’m”, was the curt response.
“Thank you”, said my friend. “And what is your name, please?”
Silence. Then –
“Just a moment”.
“You can come Tuesday at 11:45 am”.
When my friend told her doc what had happened, he was appropriately appalled, and advised her that the if this ever happened again, she should ask to speak to his nurse or to him directly, an option my friend told me she had never even considered.
Which made me realize that not everyone knows what to do when, for whatever reason, they can’t get a soon-enough appointment with their doctor for an urgent matter.
What To Do If Your Doctor’s Appointment Isn’t Soon Enough
We can talk some other time about what is happening to health care, why that secretary up there should be fired, or how call centers, for all their efficiencies of scale, can become too far removed from the action of a doctor’s office to function effectively. None of which will get you in to see your doctor.
So here’s some practical advice for when you need to get in to see your doctor on an urgent medical matter and his/her office staff gives you an appointment that you believe is too far into the future.
1. Be up front about why you need the appointment, as my friend was. This will help your doctor’s staff to triage your appointment appropriately, and most of the time, will be all you need to do.
2. Ask if you can see one of your doctor’s associates or the nurse practitioner sooner. It may be more important to you that you get seen that who actually sees you.
3. Ask to speak to the nurse of office manager. Don’t let a secretary, as experienced as he or she may be, determine your medical fate.
4. Ask for a call back from the doctor. He or she will get you in if needed. Or maybe the problem can be handled over the phone.
5. Email your doctor. Direct communication works best if its available to you.;
6. Contact patient services. If your doc’s practice is attached to a hospital or medical school, contact patients services at that institution and ask for their assistance.
Mind you, these tactics are not appropriate if you’re just trying to make things more convenient for yourself. In fact, they may actually backfire, since you may annoy the office staff for a non-urgent reason. In that case. your best bet is to turn on the charm and worm your way in. Even better, call daily looking for cancellations, and be willing to come at the last minute if something opens up.
Take a different approach for a new patient appointment
If you’re looking for a sooner new patient appointment, you’ll need to take a different approach, since your doctor and his nursing staff are under no obligation to take your call if you are not an established patient. The office manager may be willing to speak with you, however, so it’s worth a try asking him/her to call you back. If it is a specialist you’re trying to see, ask your referring doctor’s office to facilitate the appointment. If the practice is affiliated with a hospital, contact the physician referral service – they should know which practices have availability so you can get your urgent matter handled. Calling daily in the mornings looking for a cancelled spot is also worth doing. If you’re friendly enough, you’ll make best friends with the office staff, and they’ll remember you next time a cancellation occurs.
If all this fails, seek care in an urgent care center in your area, or, as a last resort, the Emergency Room of your hospital – but only if it’s a real emergency.
Nice tips
If you have a 100 % blocked carotid artery and are just waiting to get hit by a massive stroke, then I would say yes this is a life threatening condition. The longer you wait the more at risk you are. Besides waiting to see a specialist with this condition, you also looking at appointments for a Ultra sound, MRI, CT scan, that can take a week or more, then waiting on those results,usually 2 to 4 day’s, then make an appointment again with the specialist, another week gone, then get a appointment to perform the surgery, in what, 1 week 2 weeks? no tell right. In the mean time your chances for a stroke are not getting any less, and God forbid that that happens, but if it does, now you looking at 24/7 health care depending if you don’t die in the first place. And then the cost of 24/7 home care, which could of been avoided if you could see a specialist sooner and if the surgery was performed sooner. But, just because of all the bureaucracy, and everything has to be channeled trough secretary’s office personnel and appointment makers, you put your health and in my case my life in the hands of a office secretary. The healthcare system in the US is the biggest joke I have ever seen, what is the first question you get when you call for an appointment, make sure you have your insurance card. I understand that medical care has to be paid for, but I cannot get that nasty taste out of my mouth that money comes in first,then the patient comes next. After you have your appointment finally set, the insurance card has been mentioned about 3 times on average, still think it’s about you? It’s not even the Doctors, they are fantastic to get into this profession and deal with all the problems they get, and to help people with there health problems. No, it’s the commercial system what makes it a burden to everyone with a medical condition. To get around all this, you need to get a private health insurance plan,but unfortunately, for may people, that is financial impossible. Maybe that’s why 45 million Americans do not have insurance. And Obama care is not working either, not because of the plan, but because of opposition of the multi billion dollar health and pharmaceutical industry, yes it’s a business here, it’s not about the patient, it’s about the dollar. One could take an example on how this is setup in Europe, and all the controversy I hear about that you have to wait 6 weeks for an appointment is just bogus. I make a appointment with my doctor, and in my case I would see a specialist within 2 day’s period, and the test and surgery would be done in a week. The same with Kaiser here in the US. I was diagnosed with a heart condition on December 18 2006, this was on a Friday, by Monday the surgery was done, see the difference between Medi-Call, Medi-Care, Obama Care and whatever more care you have out here. Now, the reason that nationalization of the healthcare will never work in the US, you know that answer by heart don’t you, if not, then let me enlighten you, it’s TOO COMMERCIAL, it’s a billions of dollars industry, and not to mention all the lawyers who are nothing more then a bunch of hungry money bastards who cannot wait to represent you in a law suit for mall practices, which makes everything even more expensive because of the absorbent amounts of money for hospitals and there doctors to obtain insurance. So, please do not tell me that everyone has to wait there turn do see a specialist,especially not with a potential life threatening condition, that should be a priority.
I agreed with you until you got to lawyers suing for malpractice. Most States have passed cap laws that prevent patients from suing for huge damages even when they have been seriously harmed. Lawyers told me if I died because of the negligence instead of being disabled then they might represent me. There is no money in bringing a malpractice case. Lawyers believe its not worth their time, doctors continue to harm patients and taxpayers foot the bill for patients that are permanently disabled by medical negligence.
The problem is, EVERYONE thinks his or her problem is too “urgent” to wait 6 weeks. Which problems are urgent enough to use the tactics you list and which aren’t? And how are patient’s supposed to know the difference?
Access to your doctor may suck, but it is what it is. I don’t think receptionists should be making triage decisions. The only fair way to manage this is for everyone to waith their turn. If they need to be seen urgently, there’s the ER. But overbooking and double booking patients because we, as doctors, feel they need to be seen sooner isn’t fair to anyone.
If YOU are a doctor, we are all screwed, because you clearly don’t get it! You’re right, we should be worried about fairness, not health outcomes – that makes great sense. And we should make EVERYONE wait long enough that their urgent matters become emergent. The ER is for EMERGENCIES!! I shouldn’t have to visit the ER tonight because I can’t be seen by my ENT for an horrific sinus infection for another week, because 3 of 5 doctors in the practice decided to take vacation at the same time (yes, this is actually happening to me as I type)! Maybe doctors should stop accepting more patients than they can handle, how about that? My ENT is MY ENT and I should be able to see someone tomorrow, not next week. And yes, I could go to an Urgent Care, where I will receive care from someone who knows nothing of my medical history except what I remember to tell them and they choose to believe, and it looks like I will be forced to, but that isn’t right!
Hi TBTAM – when I read, ““That’s your choice, Ma’m”, was the curt response.”, I actually exclaimed OMG! out loud!
I would NOT want that person representing my staff in anyway! If not fired …serious reprimand and *re-education*. But… seriously …how about compassion? If there truly was no way to access her physician, then at the very least ..she should’ve mentioned the emergency room if the patient told her she was suicidal. And protocols for giving resource numbers to patients in crisis.
I shudder to think she could’ve dealt with meek patients in crisis who would not have been assertive enough to ask for her name.
Great suggestions! I have been fortunate in that my docs just get me in. One doc is so particular that they have numbers to press for specific people/matters.
In the New York City area:
I’ve heard about same day walk-in service from these people…
http://www.drwalkin.com/
Also, plenty of short-term appointments available on
http://www.zocdoc.com/
which is going to other cities….
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All the advice is very good and it works most of the time …it is funny that I just saw this post today. This Monday I called my doctor office to tell her that I was in pain and asked if it would be possible to see her. It is relevant to point out here that I usually make the appointments with months in advance and this was the first time that I call for something urgent. The assistant asked me how long I had my pain (a few days) and told me she has to talk to the doctor and then she will call me back. She assured me she would get back to me the same day. So I sat by the phone and waited…nothing happened that day. Next day, I waited the entire morning…nothing happened. I called again. The assistant had talked to the doctor and she wanted to see me but unfortunately they have no available appointments…so when something opens up, they will call me…
It is Friday and nothing happened. I would have appreciated a few words of compassion, like: “How bad your pain is” or “please try a couple of acetaminophen tablets”…but no advice was given. Should I fire my doctor? If so, I have the hard task of finding someone else specialized in the field and waiting a couple of months for a first appointment. It is not easy being a patient with patience.
Amalia –
Ask to speak to the doctor yourself. Use email to the doctor or if the doc has a connect program use that messaging service.
Let us know what happens.
Peggy
I looked for my doctor business card and there was no email address but a fax number. So today I followed your advice and sent her a message using the good-old fashioned fax technology instead. Five minutes after the fax machine gave me the OK, the phone rang. It was my doctor’s assistant, to tell me that I have an appointment tomorrow at noon! Thanks, Peggy!
Amalia –
So glad it worked! Hope all is well tomorrow.
Peggy
Yes that would be nice, email your doctor,those privileges only exist if you have a private insurance. If you with medi-call, medi-care- or Obama care you cannot talk to your doctor directly, you have to talk to God knows how many secretary’s and you still do not talk to your doctor. I was with Kaiser when my premium was not 7 to 800 a month and there you can email your doctor, there you have access to your medical records, but those day’s are long gone for me.
Interestingly, you’re told to wait out a problem before you see a specialist, and then it takes 3 months to see one…. so now I’ve had coccygeal pain for 4 months and have to wait another 3 because I need a specialist. In the meantime, I have to worry about what’s going on!
See another doctor privately and bill the first doctor that cannot be bothered to put in the hours to care for his patient. The only thing bad doctors respond to is being hit in their pockets. I’m afraid patients mean little to them unless they are getting paid, the shallow creatures they are.
I looked for information on this because the issue is urgent and we have been to the emergency room but need the specialist for this. The ER contacted their office and the office contacted us and gave us an appointment in two weeks. In two weeks I think we will be in the ER with a worse problem. Anyway. I just had to respond here because there is a solution and one that is used in other countries and also here in some disciplines. Its called TRIAGE and triage is typically done by TRAINED RN’s NOT RECEPTIONISTS!
Why on earth are receptionists allowed to do triage to begin with? It should be against the law. These are not people with ANY medical training making life and death decisions. Because of my experiences once I do not have these very serious issues to deal with I plan to talk with my congresswoman about this. Have done it before on another issue and was fruitful.
FYI groups of neurosurgeons have this system in place and it works well. There is no reason general doctors and other specialists could not have the same system.
I’m a 30 year AIDS survivor, I have a few tricks up my sleeve. First, have excellent insurance, I have two full policies which are both “Cadillac Plans.” My main plan is PPO, you pay less if you stay with their network of doctors. If the problem is severe enough, it may warrant paying extra money to see an out of network doctor. My insurance policy does not require prior authorization nor a referral from my primary care physician. I try to have my PCP make the appointment however, they have ways of expressing urgency better than I. Research Doctors whom offer concierge service. This is an up front fee from $1000 to $5000 a year, basically an elite member fee which guarantees preferential treatment and that usually include immediate access by phone or by appointment with the doctor. If you have visited the doctor before, emailing or faxing them will usually work. Remember make your written request to the point and brief.
There are books available on how to be a better consumer of Health Care, I have several and read them since our care system is changing all the time. I count myself as a survivor, I must be proactive. Also I made sure I’m over-insured and keep close relationships going with my doctors.
I had the unfortunate experience of having to deal with the public health system. I was appalled at the disparities in health to those who have basic or no insurance. My partner received a diagnosis of stage three cancer and the hospital sent us home with an appointment three weeks later with a Hematologist. Being pushy is not my style but when someone I care about is in pain and is not receiving proper care, I intervene. I found the Hematologists home phone number as it was the weekend, apologized for disturbing him but explained the situation. He called the hospital and had us ushered through a packed emergency room and my partner was receiving pain medication and being initiated on Cancer Chemotherapy. The Hematologist apologized for the mishap and the Doctor who discharged was reprimanded. So if you feel something is not right, be proactive and take action.
One of the things you learn in medical school is that patients are to be triaged according to the severity of their issue or illness. Most Doctor’s offices know this and keep a set number of close-in slots open for such emergency cases.
Good luck to all!
Thanks, Ron. This is all excellent info!
Peggy
It takes 4 months just to get an initial doctor’s visit, and all they do is paper work.
Good advice in this article and today I need it. Desparately seeking some answers for health problems that seem to be taking over my body so my neurologist referred me to a special neurological center and finally talked to them today…..was told 3 months is the first available appointment at the center. The right side of my face is numb most of the time, as are the front of my legs, and my legs keep having muscle spasms along with alot of other symtoms and I am supposed to just sit on my thumbs for the next 3 months?? I left my neurologist’s nurse (who referred me) a voice mail asking if she had any advice and tomorrow I will call the center again and ask about being put on a list for a sooner appointment. Do you by chance have any other ideas??
Well, I guess I am not going to make new friends here because we are in the “we are the best” country. But for their own sake people need to be told some painful truths at times. Context first: married to a USAF member I have lived in many countries & for long periods of time, I have a medical background + 17 years of experience that give me the ability to judge and yet seeing how it works in the EU was a rude awakening. So here it is:
This post maybe helpful but it is above all, both appalling & saddening because this is just a list of tricks one after another to palliate the incompetence & the laziness of a bunch of very entitled people in this country ( i.e the US medical community) who want to play God, forgot the oath they took at the end of Med School and lost all decency and commonsense. The “we-are-the-best” motto in the US is a pair of blinders that prevent us from realizing what seething pit of ineptness is the US medical system.
-Incompetent, under-trained & irresponsible MDs focused on their wallet & the watch instead of focusing on their job which is: making an accurate diagnosis and finding the right treatment(just 4 years in Med school for a family medicine MD? Seriously? It is a college degree PLUS SEVEN years in Med School in EU, TEN years in Med school for a specialist);
-Paramedical personnel being given Medical responsibilities ( since when a NURSE has the qualification & training to make a diagnosis or answer a question on ANY medicine? Did they attend med school? NO, did they attend Pharma school? NO, so they squarely don’t have the credentials for doing that or even make ANY kind of triage over the phone!)
-Under-qualified PAs (A undergraduate degree & a few hours in contact with patients + less than 2 years of training is supposed to give them the knowledge necessary to diagnose everything a MD takes 4 years to learn? How does this add up ? How much more stupid and dangerous can this system possibly get?)
-NP hence NURSES practicing MEDICINE ( they received NURSING training NOT medical training, why would hey practice medicine?)
– Under qualified mental health “professionals” ( what someone who studied social work for 4 years can bring to a patient who has a PSYCHOLOGICAL of PSYCHIATRIC problem?)
Let’s see what credentials are required in EU for the same professions: First ALL healthcare professionals HAVE to undergo psychometric and personality tests, if they fail these tests, they cannot move forward on the medical/nursing career path.
– competitive admission exam where only 8% of students are accepted and 7 years in Med School for MDs, 10 years for specialists (Med-school is FREE of charge in France)since the exam is college level, college degree is not mandatory but strongly advised (one can only take the exam twice in a lifetime so better be well prepared)
– competitive admission exam and 3 years in Nursing school for basic RN ( same conditions as above)
-A MS minimum, a competitive admission exam to a head nurse school PLUS almost 2 years of school before taking on a head nurse position ( no promotion to this rank without the appropriate degree).
-PhD minimum for Psychologists and therapists…
-No PAs or NP who are playing the role of a MD and do not have the knowledge to do so. A Nurse is a nurse and a MD is a MD, not the same training, not the same responsibilities PERIOD.
Now the overstaffed offices and calling centers we see in the US do not make people efficient, they make people lazy, irresponsible and disconnected. Most MDs in EU have ONE secretary who knows their schedule at least 6 months in advance and manage their calendar making sure that time is left every day for urgent appointments. So no one waits for months for an urgent appointment, your family MD or the ER MD secretary calls the specialist’s office with the level of emergency evaluated by the MD who initially saw you. The specialist’s appointment is given according to how serious and urgent your condition is. Routine visit? You can wait. Painful or potentially life threatening condition, you get an appointment in a matter of days or even HOURS if your condition justifies it. Bottom line you get out of the ER or of your MD office with all the appointments you need. All this for, in France for example, a one time out of pocket cost of about 10$ no matter how long was the consult.
That is how SERIOUS professionals work in the other rich countries of the world and this standard of care is definitely WAY ABOVE the level of care patients receive in a country that pretends “lead the free world”! No wonder why the mortality rate is a lot lower in these countries than in the US and if I may, this is a shame and should not be accepted.
So trying all the tricks to get an appointment sooner will MAYBE work ONCE but don’t get fooled, if you read that, millions of people are reading it also so guess what they will do? They all are going to do that also! Result? You will not get your appointment sooner ANYWAYS.
Now we can all abide by the lecture here above explained but if you summarize what is said, it goes down to the following blackmail ” Okay I am lazy, overstaffed, disorganized, totally unconcerned, greedy and outrageously paid but if you are nice and obsequious enough with me I will maybe accept to abide by the Hippocratic oath I took”.
HEY WAKE UP! If you say nothing to these people, do you really think they will change anything? They will not!It will get worse because people in this country take advantage of you until you put a stop to it. The situation is very comfortable for them, patients are dying waiting for care but these people are not being dragged in front of courts of law for taking months in addressing a stroke follow-up. There are no consequences for them, why on earth would they stop behaving irresponsibly?
Now the only thing I see that usually wake them up is to call them once but to not let them give you the runaround even for one second, ask for the supervisor’s name and email or fax at the very first call, take note of the name of the clerk and the time of the call, set a deadline for the clerk to call you back and if they did not call you back on time,call them again ONCE, if you still cannot get any result, WRITE the supervisor saying ” Dear Mr Iamincompetent, I have been seen at the ER on the ( date), I had a stroke, I need a follow up with a neurologist urgently because it was so ordered by the MD who saw me at the ER. As you can read on the medical report here enclosed, the ER doctor specifically insisted on the necessity of an URGENT appointment. I have called your scheduling office and could not get any appointment before 3 months. 3 months away is not what can be referred to as an urgent appointment. I would like to stress the fact that any extensive wait time jeopardizes my recovery, exposes me to another stroke and could tremendously affect the outcome of my medical issue. If I do not receive any phone call of your scheduling clerk by the (date) I will try to call you on the (date), in case I can’t reach you on this very day, I will come back to you in writing again and I hope you will not mind if I Cc the health consumer alliance ( or other patient association)and the management of your medical center. I hope you understand, thank you very much. Kind regards”
Fantastic info.
I am at the end of my rope. 5 months to see my neurosurgeon.
I have muscle atrophy from waiting so long. I asked to at least let me
leave a note for the busy Dr. Asking for melds to take me through the
5 months and the office help yelled at me saying “you only get meds if you
just had surgery so noooo.
Well said. I am European, and the healthcare there is, you been taking care off from the day you are born, until the day you die. In the US, should off, could off, would off but we didn’t, results, worsening condition, you die before you see any specialist so problem solved, at least for them.If we could only set patience first instead of bank accounts, we might see some improvement. And are we talking about the most powerful, riches country in the world, who has more people living on the street, have children starving!!!!! whaaaat children are hungry in the most powerful country in the world, (self portrayed though) that’s uncalled for. The healthcare system in the US is a joke. If you cannot afford a private health care plan, you are screwed. Lets put some more advertising on TV for the pharmaceutical Industry, so they can increase your medicine anywhere between 300 and 5000% lets make them bigger and more billions of dollars income for a pill which probable has been made in China, (everything else we buy is) and cost 2 cents to make and cost us $ 20.00 for the same pill, what has society become to. You can almost put the healthcare system in the same category as our presidential elections,we entertain the rest of the world.
I called my docs office last week asking to have him return a call about an incorrect diagnosis he made. I went to an ENT on my own and since I need a referral to the ENT my doc had to fax it over. I got to the ENT office and they had not received the referral so I told them to call my docs office. Then the ENT gave me a hearing test. It showed a very slight loss oh hearing in my left ear. Tinnitis was the diagnosis and that was that. Live with it. My doc said I had a tiny piece of wax in the ear and sent me to the pharmacy to get an ear wax remover. It didn’t do anything. No wax. Tinnitus can drive you nuts.Its a constant hissing sound. Never stops. So I did some research and found Lipoflavinoid,basically a B Supplement. Not a prescription. It worked took 2 months. But it worked. So now I stay on it. I called to ask my doc if he agreed. 5 days later the nurse calls and doesn’t know why I need to ask. She said do you want me to tell the doctor that his diagnosis was wrong? I can’t keep up with what you are saying. Nice.. huh? Everything in his office is confusing. 14 years I have been going to him. It’s a mess.
So all of you have this healthcare thing figured out huh? Doctors are money hungry mongers and don’t care about your health right? Let me ask you this? You call a specialists office for an URGENT/EMERGENCY appointment, the New Patient Coordinator tells you the next available is 1-2 months from now. Why on earth would you ask is there anything sooner?? If there were something sooner don’t you think I would tell you? I’m not saving appointments for my friends or anything, I’m not saving any for profit. If I say that is the next available, that is the next available. Secondly if you were seen in the ER and they discharge you with instructions to be seen within a couple of days with a doctor, that in NO WAY implies that that doctor MUST see you within those couple of days. That is a RECOMMENDATION of a physician NOT an automatic appointment. The hospitals have NO say in an outside physician’s schedule. With that said, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE tell me what YOUR solution is to the scheduling problem. I would really like to know how you think you could accommodate 30+ requests a day for URGENT appointments every request no less important than the last. I’m in no way saying these aren’t emergencies, however I would like to know how you see fitting every one one of these people onto an already packed schedule? Do you take away the doctor’s lunch? They don’t need to eat right? Do you overbook the schedule? You didn’t really want the doctor to spend more than 2 seconds with you did you?? Do you overload the schedule with overbooks till midnight? Doctor doesn’t need to see their family right? No one is under any obligation to schedule with the physician who was RECOMMENDED by an ER. If you are unsatisfied look elsewhere. If you needed work done on your car and had a previous bad experience at a shop would you take your car there again??? On top of all of this these doctors have the audacity to want money in return for evaluating patients? How dare they try and pay back the enormous student loans they incurred while studying to be a physician!! That would be like saying the employees of a grocery store should NOT be paid because everyone needs groceries right? Why should we have to pay them to work there?? Well for everyone of you ENTITLED patients you will be surprised to know that your “HEALTH INSURANCE” does NOT cover your medical bills. They find any little thing they can to prolong shelling out reimbursements. What does that mean? Well let me tell you how this works. You pay XYZ insurance to cover your medical expenses, you pay premiums co-pays, deductibles and coinsurance. You pay a co-pay when you come in usually in the $30-$75 range depending on your plan. Patient is seen and the claim is filed to your insurance. Your insurance receives this claim and says “you didn’t put a comma in this box”. Claim is now denied and the office has to call the customer service number on the back of your card to find out for what ridiculous reason they denied the claim. Refile this claim which will take 30-45 days for REPROCESSING. Then the insurance says ok well our contract says we can pay you 10% UNDER what Medicare allows on this code. So their payment ends up being about $10 because the PATIENT has already paid the bulk of the claim with their $55 copay. $65 is what the doctor was paid for your evaluation. So yes 40 people were on the schedule but when you take into account that you have to fight for those measly $10, that money doesn’t come in that same day. So the doctor is looking at maybe $1000-$2000 reimbursement a day for patients who were seen months ago. Now that may sound like a lot of money, but just like us they have bills to pay. Lights, water, rent/mortgage on the building, EMPLOYEES salary and health insurance, PAYMENTS ON THAT $75K ELECTRONIC HEALTH RECORD the government CORNERED physicians into buying. Not sure what that is?? Well let me just tell you. Any physician who accepts Medicare or Medicaid MUST purchase an Electronic Health Record. It must meet GOVERNMENT’S specifications and costs anywhere between $75k to $100k. Who is responsible for forking out this money??? The doctor is, do you know what happens if they don’t comply??? No, they reduce your reimbursements by an INCREASING percentage for a couple of years till it hits the max. Then the payments will be penalized by that max percentage for the rest of the time you are in business. Does that sound fair??? Lastly they gotta pay for the all mighty malpractice insurance for those who are unsatisfied and want to sue. How much of all of this do you think the GREEDY doctor actually takes home??? On top of sparse reimbursements Medicare has already taken a 2% Sequester for all payments, that’s 2% reduction in already sparse payments. You know who else benefits from Medicare’s rules and regulations?? Every other health insurance company out there. “If Medicare can do it so can we” So with the government withholding payments and commercial insurances following suit where do you people think this money is flowing from?? The only specialties that pay are surgeons. So if you want to bag on them go right ahead. Does this ring a bell with anyone? No let me provide a link for you to inform yourself. http://www.medicarenewsgroup.com/news/medicare-faqs/individual-faq?faqId=2ec7b6bb-c68b-433e-830e-035b9d930e4d.
This will happen so that the government can save on Medicare reimbursements who do they take from?? DING DING DING the physicians. I’m sure me explaining all these bureaucracies means nothing to you in the least. But before you start bashing physicians and calling them GREEDY UNCARING MONGERS think about what the GOVERNMENT (who everyone is so quick to call when UNSATISFIED) is doing to these physicians behind the scenes that no one except other healthcare personnel can relate to. But please tell me more about how YOU can fix the problem of unavailable healthcare. Call that GOVERNMENT so that they can figure out another way to take away payments from physicians.
So “Agnes” please give everyone your insight on how to get into a physician’s office SOONER than everyone else. Complain to the office manager or Health Consumer Alliance as you put it. Do you know what that does, it makes one less doctor available to see you!!! When you are down to 3 physicians in the city and 6 months to a year wait time you’ll wish you hadn’t called the “MANAGEMENT, OR HEALTH CONSUMER ALLIANCE OR ANY PATIENT ASSOCIATION”
DO YOURSELF A FAVOR AND FIND A PHYSICIAN THAT LIKES TO CATER TO YOUR EVERY WHIM AND PUTS UP WITH YOUR ENTITLEMENT!!!
Specialists offices are NOT Emergency Rooms if you feel your condition is life threatening go to where they are equipped to handle those situations the ER. Why do you think physician’s office state that at the beginning of every message. Offices are not equipped to handle emergencies. If the ER dismiss you it’s because they have managed to keep disaster at bay. Let me let you in on a little secret. The ER knows what the wait time is for a specialist’s office. And stomping your feet like a child and being a tattle tale is not going to get you a sooner appointment. Acting like an adult and maybe eating a slice of humble pie might go a long way. You never know the office manager just might side with their employee. All because you chose to act like your problems are more important than everyone else’s.
It did not use to be like this.
Rant all you want.
Once upon a time, you called, and were seen within 2 weeks.
Stop making excuses for doctors that make us wait months for a 2 minute appointment.
For the premiums we pay, we should not be waiting longer than 3 weeks.
I cannot be seen for over 3 months! You think that is reasonable?
You are most likely in the medical field, so your comments are understandable. However for people who are just patients, we are not aware of the inside on how the system works. (suppose to work) And on top of it all, without patients, there would not be any doctors, without cars braking down, we would not need any mechanics either, so one hand feeds the other. You get sick, you need a doctor, period, While I do understand where you are coming from, with that every patient thinks that his/hers situation is more life threatening then everybody else, I see it more that they are scared of that condition and do not know what is going to happen, or on how it will be solved, and therefor they start acting irrational, and want to see the specialist yesterday. The more appropriate way to make your point is to educate people instead of pointing fingers. I don’t think that people in general blame the doctors, but you have to admit that the healthcare system here is absolutely one of the worse. I too have a life threatening condition, I had a ultra sound last week Thursday, and I can see a specialist on Monday the 19th, so that’s not too bad. However, if I would still be with Kaiser, this condition I have would already had me in the hospital, and would of been taking care of faster then my appointment for the ultra sound and the appointment to see a specialist combined. My heart surgery 10 years ago was diagnosed on Friday, by Monday the triple bypass was done, and by the next Friday I went home. However, for most people including myself, private healthcare is not affordable, especially when you are 65 and older. I have news for you too, when you are young, you hardly need a doctor, but when you get older, you are going to need a doctor more, that’s just the way it is, getting old really sucks, and it comes with a lot of medical problems which is unavoidable. And on a side note. My friend is a collector for outstanding balances in the medical field, doctors are the worse to pay there bills, especially there student loans, but they still have huge houses and driving 100 K cars, sailing there 50 foot yacht, and enjoy there weeks of vacation in the Bahama’s, and as far as I’m concerned, they deserve that too, there responsibility exceeds by far any profession in the world. Most of us can make a mistake in there profession, doctors cannot make a mistake, they can lose a life, I do not want that kind of responsibility, I would not be able to sleep. Other then that, people are hypocrites, if they get paid 20 dollar per hour they complain,if the get paid 30 dollar an hour , they will complain sooner or later and want a raise, we too want to make as much money as possible in our profession, doctors should make an abundance of money because of there training and responsibilities they carry, thank God that there are Doctors and Nurses.
Insurance premiums have no bearing on doctor’s availability. It is a contract entered by you and the insurer and does not obligate the doctors to anything. What I’m gathering is patient’s want concierge service from a doctor. Let me tell you that service exists so pay a monthly / yearly premium and those doctors will drop everything just for you the nanosecond you call.
Entitlement much. I like you. I also have the same problems. You did forget one thing that drives me crazy.
Please do not put someone else on the phone, it is not going to change my schedule. All it does is put you at the end of the list if I get a cancellation.
It is disgusting at the elitist attitude of these doctor’s offices. I thought doctors were supposed to care about patients. Could you imagine if every business had this attitude? Could you imagine calling to get your car fixed and all the repair shops told you since you have never been their before they could fix your car but it would take 6 months and they would recommend you rent a car until they can get to it. Yeah we can deliver your pizza next week, in the mean time I would just eat something at home. Of course you can buy groceries, but we won’t have enough people to check you out for another month, so in the mean time I would just grow your own food. What a joke of a system, yes we understand you are very sick and yes it would be more reasonable to have us treat you for $300 for 5 minutes of work, but we are just too busy, please go get charge $2000 at an emergency room.
My TSH levels plummeted post the 3 level spinal fusion, with 2 artificial discs. My heart rate skyrocketed, and my room was quickly filled with machines, people drawing blood and several doctors. (this was at 3AM)
After, they got me off Dilaudid, my BP was fine, but I was given a paper to get my TSH levels checked out asap.
My appointment made in January 2016, is April 19, 2016!
That is way past 6 weeks!
I asked to see any other endocrinologist in the office, and they casually said, “the wait is the same no matter who you get.”
Staples down my entire spine and down the front below my belly button, and they are going to leave me exhausted and suffering worse from my thyroid disease, on top of recovering from this 360 degree fusion?
That is beyond terrible~
I’ve tried to get into a urologist.Went to one who was a quack,got his MD note he falsified what he did during the visit.Having to go to another taking me a month to get in.In severe pain in bladder into groin area.Have no respect for physicians anymore.Their greedy and selfish.Have no compassion
That’s uncalled for, just because you have had a bad experience does not mean that the doctors are aware of that. You really think that doctors don’t give a shit about there patients? they really do, they just do not get involved with the scheduling, they have better things to attend too, SAVING PATIENTS LIFE. Get another doctor, don’t sit on your ass and complain, get it moving, take initiative. you will be surprised what you can accomplish when you put your mind to it, be polite, be nice and friendly, you can get a lot more accomplish when your are calm and collected and be friendly, then trowing a tantrum because you think you are above other patients. And if you think that doctors only do there profession because of the money, you need to see a psychiatrist.
I like the idea to ask for a call back from a doctor if your case happens to be urgent. My wife has been very sick for these past few weeks. I definitely think that we should find a doctor that could see her as soon as possible.
Ask your primary doctor or any specialist doctor you have to intervene on your behalf to get a quicker appointment on a referral. They personally know the doctors the refer so that can work. My doctor has his assistant make appointments on my behalf sometimes or he would just drop the doctor a note. Also a good primary doctor will send over your medical reports to the referral doctor & also call that doctor to fill him/her in on your situation. So that by the time you see the specialist, he already knows your background. That’s what my doctor does for me. Been my doctor for 6 years now. I can get next day appointments with him too as he squeezes me into his schedule. All I have to do is tell the front desk who I am & what the issue is & that they should check with him.
Also I once complained to my orthopedist that I had to wait 2 weeks to get an appointment with him. After I left, he had spoken to the front desk & let them know to make sure I was taken care of with timely appointments. The girl had the front desk told me this the next time I went. That was 5 years ago. Recently I sustained an injury running & I was also able to get a next day appointment. Only thing is you have to be flexible with the time & take whatever tume they can squeeze you in.
I think everyone is disillusioned with the healthcare system. Patient’s think doctors are rich n don’t care while doctors work to treat patient’s knowing full well that the insurance will either a) not pay at all or b) fight tooth and nail to not pay until you give up and the deadlines have come and gone. So the INSURANCE companies are the ones getting rich off you. Those papers the insurance company sends you after a doctor’s appointment are very informative they will tell you exactly how much they paid the doctor to see/treat you. Take a look at one sometime you might just be surprised!! Back to the question at hand I must have missed where someone actually came up with a solution to the question “Entitlement Much” asked. How do you accommodate 30+ requests a day for urgent appointments???
Thank you for explaining that you should be upfront with your doctors staff about why you need the appointment as soon as possible. My daughter has been very sick and has been putting off seeing her doctor. I’ve been recommending that she see her doctor as soon as she can, so I’ll mention your advice to her so that she can hopefully see him later today.