Upset with our doctor.....

Colleen

Colleen

Senior Member
Location
Pennsylvania
My yearly Wellness exam is in February every year. About a month before it was due, I got a call from a woman saying she wanted to schedule my exam, which we did. She told me the exam would be at an Urgent Care facility in town. I thought that was strange, but I figured there would be a separate entrance to the Wellness office. There wasn't! My husband waited in the car and I reluctantly walked in the Urgent Care. The waiting room was right there where you walk in and the registration desk sat back. The room was PACKED with sick people...old, young, and everything in between. They all had the flu and they were not wearing any masks. I did register but I didn't touch anything. I used hand sanitizer and a pen from my own purse. They told me I had to go through another door and wait in that waiting room. I did. It was grubby and not very clean. I waited 10 minutes and walked out....right back through all those sick people! I got in the car and was furious that that was how a "wellness" exam was going to be conducted. Thank God we had had our flu shots but what other germs was I carrying out of there???

I stewed about it for a few days and then decided to contact our insurance (Humana) and tell them about it. I wanted to know if that was their way of cutting costs by sending us seniors to some place other than the doctor's office. They said it was not their policy. Each doctor has the determination of how the Wellness exams are done and where. That made me even madder. They asked me if I wanted to file a complaint and I said yes.

I've never heard from the doctor's office asking why I left or why it wasn't done. We've had some other red flags about our doctor in the last couple years and this seems to be the proverbial straw. We hate looking for a new doctor but when it comes to your health, you've got to be proactive. As a matter of fact, my husband's exam is in November every year and when I called the doctor's office (you can never get any one right away...you have to leave a message and they call you back...sometimes) to make his appointment, they didn't say anything about going to the Urgent Care and I had told them it was for his Wellness exam. Anyway, when the doctor came in to see him he asked my husband what he was there for and David told him the Wellness exam. The doctor said, "Well, someone screwed up big time. I can only give you a partial." My husband was so dumbfounded he didn't know what to say. So...he didn't really get an exam either...but the doctor billed our insurance $304!! I know he only gets paid what Medicare's guidelines are but it's disgraceful what these doctor's are doing...or NOT doing.

Thank goodness we're both healthy and don't have any major problems.

OK...that's my rant for the day
 

Yikes I don't blame you for the rant.

Glad to told your insurance about it. When I had ConnectiCare ins, they would call or send a form to rate certain things about the Dr./office.

It's good they offered a separate room for wellness checks, but I don't think the germs would wait until you left reception to go to your room. And that room was not clean.

Here's my take-
Doctors/ practices could well afford to put on extra cleaning staff during flu seasons.

Also, sick people have to go to the Dr., there's not a lot we can do about that. After reading your story, I think I will get a mask if I need to see a Dr. during flu season.
 
It sounds like your doctor is trying to "milk the system", and trying to cram in as many people as possible so as to increase his profits. In addition to contacting Humana, you might also file a complaint with Medicare...they have an ongoing investigation into doctors who are trying to "game" Medicare.

https://www.medicare.gov/forms-help-and-resources/report-fraud-and-abuse/fraud-and-abuse.html

At the bare minimum, I would begin a serious search for a different doctor.
 

wellness visit

I had a wellness exam and the doctor came to my home. She could barely speak English. When Humana called this year I told them my experience and said no thanks. I see my family doc every few months anyway and he takes care of things. My daughter is a pharmacist and monitors my meds so I have all the medical I need.
 
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I am looking for a new doctor. I am going to wait until the new Cleveland Clinic is finished in my city. It should be this summer. I have medical issues but I believe they can wait until then. I don't have anything like heart disease so I think I will wait still.

So sorry you had that experience and I realize how hard it is to find a good doctor now a days with the insurances we have.
 
I don't go to the doctor unless I absolutely have to. I worked as an LPN many,many years ago and the medical profession has gone down the tubes in more ways than one. The doctor who we have been going to when needed has just had his license suspended for having another doctor who had his license revoked work for him and he admitted that he knew it!. My hubby was treated by him when our doctor was not available. I'm very skeptical of doctors and hospitals and prefer to keep my distance when at all possible.
 
The older I get, the less faith I put in our health care system, and doctors. About the most positive thing I can say about doctors is that they are more trustworthy than politicians and car salesmen. Far too many of them are more interested in chasing the Dollar, than providing quality care. 7 out of the 10 highest paid careers are in the medical fields...and that is only going to get worse. 90% of today's med students are planning on entering a specialty...so they can make the Big Bucks. It won't be long before most of the primary care doctors will probably be immigrants from India.
 
Those "wellness exams" are a scam perpetrated by the insurance companies, I believe. I go once a year for a checkup and schedule it myself with my doctor's office. I do not participate in those "wellness exams."

If you otherwise like your doctor, do some checking into by whom and how and why that "wellness exam" was scheduled. Docs themselves don't have a whole lot to do with scheduling, and if it had been his idea he probably would have seen you at his regular office, not at some urgent care place. I'd do some checking into it -- I betcha the insurance company was behind it.
 
Butterfly.....our doctor does not see us any more for the wellness exam. That's why he was upset with my husband for being seen in his office. According to Humana, our doctor dictates how and where these exams are to be done and the woman that called me was a scheduler for his office...not Humana. We are looking for a new doctor because there have been so many changes in this office that we feel he is not giving us good care. He doesn't even have a nurse any more. He had a nurse practioner but she isn't there any more either. No office manager either.
 
Here's another example of how things have gone downhill at our doctor's office. When my husband was in the office in November, he was given his paperwork to have routine blood drawn (yearly) so he went the next morning and had that done. In the past, we use to get a phone call from the doctor's nurse to tell us what his levels were and ask if we had any questions. We didn't hear anything for weeks and then we got a form letter in the mail that said "Everything was normal." My husband had had a slightly enlarged prostate last year when he went, but he wasn't even checked when he went in November.

Today, I called his office (it does not go to his office any more, but right to someone at the hospital that takes all calls...I guess) to ask for a referral for my husband to get a Rx from the Ortho doc so my husband can get a new brace made for his ankle. The gal that took the message said she would forward it to the medical assistant and get back to me. We'll see if/when someone calls me back.
 
Speakina' the doc's .

I went today. My weight & B/P were up, the doc says while your here , I've opened a few minutes with the dietitian for you. OK, so I step down to her office. First of all let me say that this young lady seems like one of the few that really care...I mean she calls me here at home & checks on me between appointments.

Now...I am 68 yrs,6'1" 277 [today]It really is hard to take advise? & or take seriously a medical professional, dietitian who is 40? 5'9"?.... and outweighs me .

The next time I go to the doc...I really think I need to mention it to him....but to be honest her personality makes it hard to do. I do not want to cause her any trouble .

Do you all here think I should?...or just let it go ?
 
Colleen said:
Butterfly.....our doctor does not see us any more for the wellness exam. That's why he was upset with my husband for being seen in his office. According to Humana, our doctor dictates how and where these exams are to be done and the woman that called me was a scheduler for his office...not Humana. We are looking for a new doctor because there have been so many changes in this office that we feel he is not giving us good care. He doesn't even have a nurse any more. He had a nurse practioner but she isn't there any more either. No office manager either.
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Sounds like you do, in fact, need a new doc. This sounds like a terrible way to run a practice and it doesn't sound like he cares much about his patients, either.
 

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