Wellness

[PurpleBunny]

My dad has had TWO.

One just disappeared after my dad had back surgery, he didn't appear on the state board license page anymore - nobody was talking. Never did find out what happened, but when I called the state, the woman I talked to said, "off the record, that is BAD." He was AWFUL to me every time I talked to him, I though he was on drugs or psychotic. I wasn't at all surprised. If I had my way, he would have never have operated on my dad. 

And one of his eye doctors went to prison for Medicaid fraud. Because of the publicity, we saw that one coming though.  

[Moonchilde]

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@Lipstickdiva wrote:

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@terrier3 wrote:

Remember the famous line "If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor?"

That never was true, for one important reason - doctors are free to go in and OUT of service provider agreements/practices/groups at will. They don't have to sign up for a year at a time, like we do during open enrollment.

They are businessmen/women who work for themselves and can change practices, payment methods, whatever they want, whenever they want.

A woman who works with me has a cardiologist she really likes. She just got a letter from the practice saying he was no longer there and she would be switched to a new doctor. It took her a while to find out that her old doc had changed practices and part of his contract was NOT revealing where he was going. He wasn't allowed to contact his old patients, who were legally "property" of the practice!

I think we sometimes assume that because medicine is a "caring" profession - that practitioners should be more concerned with their patients well being.

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Most doctors around here do not work for themselves.  They are all under a practice group and hence, under a contract.

I have several doctors that are with the Cleveland Clinic and they are all under 1 year contracts.  However, fairly recently there was some issue and when their contracts were up, 6 doctors chose to leave at the same time.  Now they are all out of the immediate area where they practived, waiting out a 1 year non-compete before they return.   

The other bad thing is that these doctors often move from one facility to another within the group. For instance, my old PCP was on the same campus I work on and one of the reasons I picked her was because I could walk across the parking lot to her.  Then one day I called to make an appointment and found out she had moved out to another facility that was 25 minutes away.  Royal pain.   

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That happened to me in the same way. One reason I chose my group was because I could walk across the street to the office, AND they had half a dozen doctors. Most of the hospital employees who could manage it did the same, with 3-4 medical buildings within 1/2 block. Two months after I started with them they moved to a building halfway between work and home. I had to drive there, hassle parking, be gone an extra 90 min from work due to traffic & parking, etc. I hated the hassle but they were good, so I did it for 8-10 years.