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I've been having the worst luck with health care lately.
Two different labs lost/spoiled my blood samples. ("Your blood can't be ran," one said, but they didn't admit it was because they dropped it on the floor.)
A prescription needed pre-procedure has been back ordered for weeks. I called five pharmacies, and finally had to get the doc to order something else.
Going in for a Covid test, they made me wait an hour past my appointment time.
Showed up for my procedure at an ungodly early hour, 6:15 am, and was told I wasn't on the schedule. They made me wait until the doctor's office opened at eight to confirm.
The prescriptions doc ordered me to take still haven't been sent to the pharmacy after two days and three phone calls to his office.
A different procedure didn't work out as planned, plus gave me a nasty hematoma that has been painful for weeks. AND they've never given me the biopsy results, though it's been six weeks and I've called several times. I finally got the results from another doctor; it took one of his staff five minutes and one phone call to get them. No cancer!
Nobody answers the phone or returns phone calls. And nobody ever apologizes.
It's all so stressful. I would prefer to put all this off until Covid is under control, but it's kind of urgent.
Anybody else having these kinds of problems?
Is it due to Covid, with reduced staff?
The doctors seem to be busy, it takes weeks to get an appointment.
I've been having the worst luck with health care lately.
Two different labs lost/spoiled my blood samples. ("Your blood can't be ran," one said, but they didn't admit it was because they dropped it on the floor.)
A prescription needed pre-procedure has been back ordered for weeks. I called five pharmacies, and finally had to get the doc to order something else.
Going in for a Covid test, they made me wait an hour past my appointment time.
Showed up for my procedure at an ungodly early hour, 6:15 am, and was told I wasn't on the schedule. They made me wait until the doctor's office opened at eight to confirm.
The prescriptions doc ordered me to take still haven't been sent to the pharmacy after two days and three phone calls to his office.
A different procedure didn't work out as planned, plus gave me a nasty hematoma that has been painful for weeks. AND they've never given me the biopsy results, though it's been six weeks and I've called several times. I finally got the results from another doctor; it took one of his staff five minutes and one phone call to get them. No cancer!
Nobody answers the phone or returns phone calls. And nobody ever apologizes.
It's all so stressful. I would prefer to put all this off until Covid is under control, but it's kind of urgent.
Anybody else having these kinds of problems?
Is it due to Covid, with reduced staff?
The doctors seem to be busy, it takes weeks to get an appointment.
Some meds are still hard to get due to COVID shutting factories down.
What lab do you use for blood work is it Quest or Labcorp or a smaller place?
Happy to hear no cancer! Having to wait 6 weeks is ridiculous. Had you had cancer, it would be growing in those 6 weeks. It's very important that biopsies for cancer be quick as possible. When my hub had cancer, we chose a cancer center that had their own lab for this reason because the initial fluid biopsies in his neck took over a week, 2 were negative but the ENT knew there had to be cancer due to how large the node was, was golf ball sized right over his carotid. He then had a PET scan that also took a good week to come back. When he had PET scans at the cancer center, the doctor called as we pulled away.
Two different Sonora Quest labs. The first time, they just never reported the results, and "couldn't" tell me why. The second time, they called to tell me I had to come back because my blood "can't be ran." Like it wasn't their fault...
Yesterday, the pharmacy told my my drug insurance wasn't covering any part of my expensive new prescription. They're working on it.
It's all going to be a funny story someday, but all those hurdles in just three months have left me exhausted.
It just keeps going...they're out of another medication that was supposed to be ready today, it "should" come in Monday.
On the bright side, my patient portal got fixed (oh, I didn't mention that was broken, too?), so I messaged the doc directly and he called and apologized for not giving me the biopsy results sooner. APOLOGIZED!
We all have stories like yours. Unfortunately it sounds like your luck was especially bad.
A recent trend I've noticed is docs that won't give test results over the phone. In person only, even if it's good news. I understand why they do it, it's a quick office visit fee they can charge, but they don't seem to care it requires people to take 3 hours out of their lives, find childcare, burn sick leave, etc etc so that they can bill the insurance company $200 or whatever. Hopefully now with COVID making telemedicine a regular thing they can milk the system that way.
I recently went to a CVS to pickup an Rx through their drive through. It was for a tiny, tiny, (extremely tiny) sealed bottle of eye drops. The drive through had one of those vacuum tube systems (like a bank). They wouldn't give me the eye drops at the drive through, citing that they "weren't allowed to put liquids into the tube". I wasn't ordering a cup of coffee, there was like a teaspoon full of eye drops in a little bottle that required two seals to be broken to even open up, and this bottle was inside a sealed cardboard box, which was inside a paper bag that was stapled shut. Apparently the US health care system is designed from top to bottom to be completely void of common sense.
Two different Sonora Quest labs. The first time, they just never reported the results, and "couldn't" tell me why. The second time, they called to tell me I had to come back because my blood "can't be ran." Like it wasn't their fault...
Yesterday, the pharmacy told my my drug insurance wasn't covering any part of my expensive new prescription. They're working on it.
It's all going to be a funny story someday, but all those hurdles in just three months have left me exhausted.
Never heard of Sonora Quest. You don't have a Labcorp or Quest Diagnostics there?
Lots of insurance companies stopped covering some meds. It really sucks. I'm on medicare, been using the same company AARP - United Healthcare for prescriptions for 5+ years, all of a sudden, they stopped covering my main pain med so I had to switch insurance companies which was a huge pain in the rear. Thankfully I know the meds I'm on but if I was put on a new med, they may not cover it. I'm on a handful of meds so when I picked a new company, I also had to pay attention to what pharmacy I was using because the new insurance favors CVS. Every one of my non pain meds are cheapest at CVS, some by at least $10 to $15 a copay so I have to send all of my non pain meds to CVS from Walgreens. I wonder if this could also be the case with your insurance.
I was shocked to find that my new insurance barely covers one of my cheapest muscle relaxers that's under $10 but for some reason with this new insurance it costs over $30 for a month prescription. It's cheaper if I use GoodRX which is what you may want to do with the med your insurance isn't wanting to cover; unless it's one the doctor has to do a prior authorization for.
If you're not familiar with GoodRX, it's free. You go to their website, type in the medication name, how many pills, add your zip code. It will list a bunch of local pharmacies with the GoodRX price. With my muscle relaxer, it's telling me Shop Rite has it for $13.64 ($32.07 at CVS) with coupon which I will be using when I run out, I click on get free coupon. Tip, do it on your cell phone. You then go to that pharmacy with the script, tell them you're using GoodRX, give them the coupon information which shows "Member ID", Group, Bin, PCN. If you like GoodRX, you can pay a $5.99 monthly fee, my $13.64 muscle relaxer goes down to $6.88 at Shop Rite. I just looked up another med my daughter and I are on. Her insurance doesn't cover it so she uses GoodRX. CVS has been charging her $29 for the last few months but when I do it on my computer, I'm showing $23.25 so I'll have to tell her CVS has been over charging for it. Unfortunately, it doesn't get covered under GoodRX Gold if we paid the $5.99 a month
I'm also prescribed an Advair medication disk that I didn't even put into the medicare prescription list because I forgot about it, I don't use it much because AARP didn't cover it much, it was like a $75 copay until I was out of the donut hole so I would stock up from August to December. I don't use it every day because my COPD isn't bad. I'll probably get a surprise if I do need it again that my new insurance doesn't cover it at all or maybe I'll luck out where they do but it's a high copay. I just looked using GoodRX, it's $107.86 so I guess I'll have to stop using it if my new insurance doesn't cover it.
Of course I had issues filling my pain meds the 1st time in January with the new insurance. They supposedly cover both meds but not if you take them both. They wanted a prior authorization which my doctor did really fast, then I got a letter in the mail saying my main pain med may not be covered any more and that what they gave me last week was a temporary supply. They're saying it's either not formulary or there are some other limits on it. When I picked the insurance, it specifically showed both of my pain meds with the doses and amounts of meds that I get so I don't understand their letter.
I tried calling the other day, the gal said everything was taken care of but I was not happy with how the call went. I specifically told her a letter dated 1/7 is why I was calling, for some reason she was talking about the 2 letters about prior authorization on 1/5, she said my doctor sent them everything they needed. She assured me I won't have any issue filling both of my meds for the whole year because the prior authorization is good for that long.
Yesterday, their automated system called to tell me otherwise so I have to call back again. I picked this insurance because my meds per year were the cheapest with them, plus they covered both of my main pain meds. I'll be upset if I have to switch to another company but thankfully I do have the other companies information because I almost signed up with them but did not because I would be spending I think $500 more per year using them. Medicare only allows so much time to switch plans so I have to deal with it again, hopefully they're open today but if not, Monday.
So I guess I had a rant too lol
Quote:
Originally Posted by steiconi
It just keeps going...they're out of another medication that was supposed to be ready today, it "should" come in Monday.
I guess it's a good thing you didn't need that medication ASAP. Is the pharmacy a big chain like CVS or Walgreens or a smaller, local place? If it's a big chain, they can call their other locations to see if they can fill it now.
Quote:
Originally Posted by steiconi
On the bright side, my patient portal got fixed (oh, I didn't mention that was broken, too?), so I messaged the doc directly and he called and apologized for not giving me the biopsy results sooner. APOLOGIZED!
I'm glad the doctor apologized but as I said, had you had cancer, it could have spread to vital organs due to their incompetence because cancer doesn't take breaks or vacations, it keep growing. If it was me, I'd be writing back to shove that in their face. They need to learn that results like biopsies for cancer is not something that's a "whoops", it very well could have cost you your life. Please say something to them so that someone else doesn't pay for their incompetence.
Quote:
Originally Posted by terracore
We all have stories like yours. Unfortunately it sounds like your luck was especially bad.
A recent trend I've noticed is docs that won't give test results over the phone. In person only, even if it's good news. I understand why they do it, it's a quick office visit fee they can charge, but they don't seem to care it requires people to take 3 hours out of their lives, find childcare, burn sick leave, etc etc so that they can bill the insurance company $200 or whatever. Hopefully now with COVID making telemedicine a regular thing they can milk the system that way.
I recently went to a CVS to pickup an Rx through their drive through. It was for a tiny, tiny, (extremely tiny) sealed bottle of eye drops. The drive through had one of those vacuum tube systems (like a bank). They wouldn't give me the eye drops at the drive through, citing that they "weren't allowed to put liquids into the tube". I wasn't ordering a cup of coffee, there was like a teaspoon full of eye drops in a little bottle that required two seals to be broken to even open up, and this bottle was inside a sealed cardboard box, which was inside a paper bag that was stapled shut. Apparently the US health care system is designed from top to bottom to be completely void of common sense.
That's a very stupid, incompetent CVS employee. I guess that employee would do the same for cough medicines. I would have asked for the manager, heck, I might even complain to corporate because that employee if not new needs to be retrained.
I just looked on my CVS receipt, there's a survey that you can do and add your complaint on it.
You go! Medical workers have become the laziest and mostly the stupidest.
They have grown immune to people's suffering and simply don't care...they want you dead so they can get a rest.
I now order tests on my own and doctor myself mostly.
If I want a test I just look up a symptom that will alarm medical providers and claim to have it... that will get me the test.
Yes, let's just bash all the health care workers who by the way, are strained beyond belief right now.
I have had issues like the OP, but by fr and wide I have had positive experiences. And now since COVID is touching every area of healthcare - a little bit of understanding goes a long way.
It's my experience that nearly everyone I do business with is making mistakes. If I listed all the messes I've been cleaning up you'd have a hard time believing me.
There's a lot of forgetfulness - promises made and not completed.
Overbilling, delays, scatterbrained behavior.
And, yes, nearly all the professionals I've dealt with look like they are dreadfully overworked. Maybe we're seeing the results of stress and people not taking time to deal with it constructively.
One thing positive I can mention is how hard most people seem to be trying to be extra cordial right now. That's refreshing.
Here's a phone call I had before Christmas ordering napkins; Gave him all the info several times. He kept asking the same questions repeatedly. Apparently couldn't figure out how to type the order in as he was talking himself through it on the phone. "No, that's not right."
After too much of this I told him to cancel the order, that I'd buy them locally. His response blew me away.
"Oh, thank you. That will be so much easier for me."
Got my statement today. I've been billed for the napkins.
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