Doc appts...

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luke strawwalker
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#1 Doc appts...

Post by luke strawwalker »

Well, I guess chickens are starting to come home to roost.

Betty was talking to her sister this morning... she's having some problems with her knee and needs to get her depression meds adjusted or whatever... seems she can't get an appointment for several weeks at the earliest.

Betty had the same issue over the past couple months with her busted elbow... she fell down the back stairs and broke her elbow in about 2-3 places, chipped the bone off the end of the humerus, tore a bunch of ligaments loose, the whole works... went to the ER, they X-rayed her and put her in a sling and sent her home with a couple scrips for pain meds. Referred her to a specialist and they didn't have anything for about a week or so, and that with an "emergency case". Specialist said, "it's the worst I've ever seen" and sent her to a "more powerful specialist" and when she called to make an appointment there, they were like "soonest is 3-4 weeks out".

Well, hell, I said, "you'll be healed up by that time-- bones only take about a month or so to knit back together!" They finally asked her "when did you do this?" and she told them it'd been two weeks ago by that point, so they worked her in as an "emergency case"... as it was, the "more powerful specialist" said that she was on the mend and thought the best course was therapy and see how that worked, and do surgery if therapy wasn't working out. The first specialist DID put a "soft cast" (wet down some cloth soaked with hardener that conforms to the limb, but is removable) for it and was rather floored that the ER didn't do anything but put her in a sling and send her home.

SO, long story short, she's on the mend. Sister in law was rather floored that she couldn't get an appointment sooner. Betty said that it's the same now with the docs, dentists, you name it. Soonest she could get Keira a dentist appointment right before school let out in early June is TOMORROW (Aug 9).

Discussion ensued over "why". I told her it's simple... the medical business is getting screwed over by insurance and Obamacare and the gubmint and all that, so this is their way of "pushing back". I've noticed it before, especially when the gubmint made a lot of crap for them to jump through for Medicare... a lot of docs dropped all their Medicare patients, or shoved them to the "back of the line" (I know how hard it was getting appt's for my Grandmother when she was alive, compared to the rest of us). Now that Obamacare has well and truly screwed EVERYBODY, it's getting to where you're going to have as much luck getting in at the local doc as at the VA... IOW, you'll "die waiting" to see the doc...

The sister in law was like "I can't make a doc appointment that far out without knowing the work schedule!" and Betty said much the same-- "yeah, I know... make a doc appointment six weeks out and then find out that they've scheduled a friggin' open house or some crap like that for that evening, and have to cancel it and start over." I told her, "no, the doc's office expects you to tell your boss "sorry, go pound sand, I've had a doc appointment for six weeks and I CAN'T reschedule it and wait ANOTHER six weeks... you'll just have to cover it or muddle through without me." That way, not only do they *oops you said word #2 off the general public who'll start squalling for "change" to make things better, but they can make enough of a nuisance for employers that THEY will start hollering about all the "economic damage" being caused by workers being unable to schedule appointments that don't conflict with work schedules and such, and they'll demand "change". It's just like with the engineered "nursing shortage" of a decade or two ago...

Oh well, I knew this was coming... Gubmint pushes, people push back...

Later! OL J R :)
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bernomatic
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#2 Re: Doc appts...

Post by bernomatic »

A while Ago, I made an appointment with an attending doctor at the local hospital because I was tired of explaining all my medical conditions every year because the resident doc had moved on. I had to edit six months just to get a check up. Now it's only four months to get an appointment. If I have an emergency situation, it's see a practicing nurse or wait the for months. A long time ago, My neurologist didn't accept the insurance I had. I paid cash and a lot less than those with insurance, for an office visit. When Obamacare was passed, he quit practicing.
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Joe Wooten
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#3 Re: Doc appts...

Post by Joe Wooten »

A helluva lot of doctors, dentists, and chiropractors are retiring because of the regulatory environment. Many refuse to take medicare/Medicaid now and several I know of are doing a booming business by taking cash only for small routine stuff.
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