Anyway,
- There are a lot of compassionate, competent, and helpful people in the health care system.
From the nurse who couldn't complete the treatment of Marian once she discovered that we didn't have the right insurance coverage to the intern in the UMass ER who loved the Anne of Green Gables stories to the phlebotomist with the pretty hair, all were kind, respectful, and eager to comfort and help. - Having a good insurance policy is no guarantee that, if your circumstances change, you'll be able to see the doctor you want.
The Medicare version of a health plan might exclude doctors that would be allowed under the non-Medicare version. The doctor you want might not be taking new patients; in one sampling, half of the family practice doctors listed by an insurance company weren't taking new patients. - Your insurance company uses the primary care physician as the focal point for all activities. You might have a doctor listed as your primary care physician.
You might also, however, have an insurance plan with that company that won't let you see that doctor.
As a result, you can't get services. You have to get a new primary care physician and get that physician's name into the many databases that enable additional services. Plan to spend a half hour on the phone with earnest people who get confused easily. - Each hospital and specialty has its own jargon for the same basic issues. If you ask the right question with the wrong terminology, it can take 15 minutes for the conversation to recover. (I'm sorry that I can't provide examples right now. I lost track too many times. For an example of what it was like, see this Monty Python police station sketch
.)
- Canadian prescription drugs may be offered in dosages that differ from those available in the U.S. As a result, you can send a U.S. doctor into a four-wheel skid by reporting that the patient is taking, as prescribed by a Canadian doctor, a particular medication at 37.5 mcg four times per day. Stateside, the drug is offered as a 50 mcg dosage three times a day.
- Two tiny, white medications, prescribed for completely different conditions, can lead to life-threatening results if the pills are mixed up. You have many medications given at complex intervals and it's often the case that the bottles look alike and the pills look alike and kaboom. Any good drug reference book or website will show you pictures of the various medications, but tired and hurried eyes rarely have such references nearby when it's time for the bedtime meds.
I don't know if the FDA has done much research in this area (the likelihood of confusion of prescription medications). I'm gonna guess, however, that quite a few people have died and that the cause may not have been identified. - Callie Crossley's show on July 14 addresses some of the misinformation that's become common knowledge regarding emergency room usage. In brief, many people, for a variety of reasons, use emergency rooms for treatment of chronic conditions that could be treated more effectively and cheaply in the home or in a clinic.
- With all of the well-intentioned people on the other side of the counter or on the other end of the phone, it will still take longer than you think it should to get the attention that's needed.
- It's tempting to think that the insurance companies and medical services organizations behave this way because it's somehow to their advantage. My suspicion, however, is that we/they just don't know how to do this right. We didn't know how to do it before. We don't know how to do it now. We won't know how to do it right in the near future.
We might get it right at the macro level, such that problems aren't statistically significant and still wind up performing some skilled-nursing tasks ourselves because we can't see a skilled nurse.
No comments:
Post a Comment