I have 3 doctors whom I love that have all decided to not take any insurance at all. Nada,nothing, not one, not just mine - but ALL insurances period.
I understand they don't get paid much anymore. My surgeon told me for every 3 surgeries, 1 is free because of what they get paid from the insurance companies. He also stated that they are now being governed by insurance and not able to give the treatment they feel is necessary because insurance companies will not pay them for such treatments they deem unnecessary. Those are the 2 reasons they are leaving insurance companies behind. I get it all sadly. But where does that leave me? I am a self employed person who pays a helluva lot of money each and every month for insurance and now no one is accepting it. I think it would be easier to take if it were just my insurance they didn't take. But they have dropped ALL insurance.
***My spine doctor who is important to me since I have had my back operated on 4 times in 3 states. When I found this man I swore I would never leave him. He has given me options that no other has suggested and he has been a blessing. Now I must leave his group.
***My thyroid doctor who was the only person to figure out that I wasn't crazy but was hypothyroid. Do you even begin to understand what a gift she has been to me? Someone who thinks outside the box and really LISTENS.
***My gyno who doesn't do OB so you aren't waiting in her office for hours while she is delivering a baby. Her specialty is bio-identical hormones and menopause which eventually I'll need some day. And I would prefer someone who thinks like her when the time comes.
All 3 doctors I need to see on a regular basis. Lovely huh?
Now I have to find new doctors and I hate that. I loved all 3 of them because they thought outside the box. They didn't look at you as a list of symptoms on a piece of paper. So now what is a poor girl to do?
I have to use the doctors in my network of Blue Cross. They are not the best of the doctors nor are they the thinkers. No Dr. Oz in the bunch.
I pay $750.00 a month for insurance that basically sucks. And if I am not a poster child for health care reform then what middle age woman is?
Today I had to have lab work done by the thyroid doctor. You see I have been continuing to go to her and forking over the $200 a visit. But now they will no longer allow me to have my blood work done at a lab outside their office. I was in the past able to go to a lab in my network and they would send the results to my dr.'s office. Now I can not do that. But it's a 2 hr drive with traffic to get to my dr.'s new office so she gave me a break and said I could go to my lab. (she is a bit of a rebel because I know for a fact that she is fighting this with the "Owners" of the practice she works in) She also knows that paying for this is crazy but her hands are tied unfortunately.
Anyway I fast and I walk in to the lab this morning with a throbbing headache because I could not have coffee or food this morning before the tests. I give them the blood work papers and they tell me that the dr. did not sign these lab papers she sent me via mail. So I call my doctor's office and the office staff is their usual self....snippy. I say that "Dr. Kate gave me outside lab papers and she did not sign them. I am standing here at the lab and they will not do the blood work with out a signature. Would it be possible for her to fax me one with her signature?" They snap at me with, "She is not allowed to do that so NO." I state that, "She gave me permission because I live 2 hrs away and that she also told me I would have to pay a premium to have it done at an outside lab and I had agreed to pay you that premium."Miss Snippy said, "well she isn't in the office today." I asked if another Dr. could do this for me since I was standing here and had fasted. Her response was a curt and definite, "NO"
Finding a new GOOD doctor is like finding a needle in a haystack. This should prove interesting, frustrating and costly to say the least. If they are great I am willing to have them not carry my insurance. But some things that are covered 100% like pap exams, mammograms, and blood work I just shouldn't have to pay for twice....or am I nuts?
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