Platapus
06-08-17, 05:24 PM
Actually this is an anecdote and the plural of anecdote is not data, but it is an almost interesting story.
There I was no Sh.... uh this really happened.
A few months ago, I received a small cut (about 1 inch) on the bottom of one of my toes. A very minor cut. But, unfortunately, it was right on the crease of one of my toe joints so every time I walked, the cut was stressed. But hardly Purple Heart material.
I got an infection so I went to one of our local clinics and received a dose of antibiotics. This took care of the infection but soon after completing the antibiotics, the infection came back. Rats
I then went to my GP. He looked at it and determined that this cut certainly did not need any stitches but he wanted to treat the infection, so he put me on a stronger and longer set of antibiotics. This took care of the infection but after completing this set of antibiotics the infection came back. I was worried that I had a persistent infection and so was the doctor.
But this is when it started getting weird.
My GP referred me to a podiatrist surgeon's office. Not just a podiatrist, but a podiatrist surgeon. This surgeon's office required full payment in advance meaning that they would submit the paperwork to the insurance. This should have been my first indicator of the scam. This office did not want to deal with my insurance company and they wanted their money upfront instead of my paying my co-pay and then being billed for any non-insurance covered balance.
I saw the podiatrist Surgeon for less than 10 minutes. I am not sure he actually touched my foot, but at least he looked at it. He wanted to sell me a kneeling scooter and a hard boot. When I hesitated, he assured me that the insurance would pay for all of it and that I should not worry.
When I asked if I really needed this, he gave me a strange look.. one I would get used to as this saga continues. The look was "why do you care if there is no cost to you?"
He then wanted X-rays taken of my foot. Remember, this is still a small cut. I asked him why and he told me that he wanted to make sure that the infection had not gotten into the bone, which would be very serious indeed. I asked him if the X-ray would be diagnostic -- meaning would the results of the X-ray give him the information he needed. He assured me that it would. There seemed to be not only a lot of insurance involved but a lot of assurance.
So I went to another office for an X-ray of my foot. I guess podiatrists don't do X-rays any more. This, of course, meant another payment and of course I needed the services of a radiologist to interpret the X-ray. OK, this sounds reasonable.
The podiatrist, without seeing the X-rays, then sent me to a "wound center". This evidently is a special medical office that handles boo boos. My doctor can't handle a small cut? And evidently a podiatrist SURGEON is unable to deal with a small cut either.
So I go to yet another office -- The Wound Center. Yet another payment.
They also try to sell me a kneeling scooter but evidently this office does not get kickbacks from hard boots, so their sales job was that I needed to get an custom made orthopedic insert for my shoe.
Pop quiz: What did I have wrong with me? Anyone? Buelier? Right! A small less than 1 inch cut on my toe.
Again when I questioned why I needed a both a scooter (that raises the injured foot off the ground) AND an orthopedic insert I got the same comforting assurance "Don't worry, the insurance will cover all of it"
"That's not the point." I asked, Why do I need this? Confused looks abound about why I won't want "free" stuff
The technician at the wound center then abraded the wound nicely and then applied a silver infused dressing. And told me not to get the foot wet.
Protip: If you cut your foot, evidently the worst thing you can do is take a shower like I was doing. The infection came back because I was washing the toe in the shower when I should have been keeping it dry. That was what was wrong with my toe!
So they wanted to sell me a special water proof dressing cover for about $75.00 with assurance that the insurance company would pay for it. No, what I needed was a $15.00 cast boot which was what I ended up doing.
Not being able to make the sale on the orthopedic insert or the scooter, it was then necessary for me to get an MRI.
"why?"
"We need to check to see if the infection has gotten into the toe bone."
"What did the X-ray results show?"
"What X-ray" (face palm) Evidently they did not like the fact that I had already been hit up with an X-ray and they were not getting their cut.
After a few days they got the X-ray report from the Radiologist and guess what? Right! The radiologist can't tell. Evidently an X-ray is not diagnostic for this. By this time several days have gone by and the combination of the excellent abrading, the silver infused dressing and, probably most importantly, keeping the stupid foot dry, it was healing up nicely. No antibiotics needed. This was after four "treatments" each with a separate fee of course.
So it was a quick "no thank you for the MRI". The wound center was stymied. They had some quotas to meet and I was not cooperating.
It just so happened that associated with the Wound Center (aka someone's brother in law) there was an Infectious Disease Specialist.
I asked what this IDS would be doing and was told "Oh she will just be monitoring your recovery.
Really? But of course since technically it was a separate office there would be another fee.
But "monitoring" my "recovery....for a small cut on my toe. I did notice that there was no talk about taking any tissue samples to test to find out what type of infection I had.... because the infection was almost gone.
So what would this specialist be monitoring other than my bank account?
I politely thanked them all for their dedication to the medical industry and took my leave. By keeping wound clean and more importantly dry, it healed up nicely and has stayed healed ever since.
So for a small cut on my foot I was directed to see
1. My GP
2. A Podiatrist Surgeon
3. An X-ray office with radiologist
4. A wound center
5. An Infectious Disease Specialist
Where I was pressured multiple times to get a kneeling scooter, hard boot, custom made orthopedic inserts, and an MRI
But the insurance would pay for this.
For something that just needed a dressing and someone to tell me to keep it dry.
My out of pocket expense for all of this was over $500.00 I have no idea what my insurance company paid but I am sure it was many hundreds probably low digit thousands.
This to me is one of the problems with out health care system. A Doctor (GP) can't take care of a simple cut. Something that my mommy could have taken care of. Instead there were four specialists of which I only agreed to see three.
But what really got to me was their attitude of "don't worry, the insurance will cover this". That's not the point. We all need to help keep medical costs down. But I guess there are people who would want anything and everything as long as the insurance would "cover it". It still costs money and that money eventually needs to be paid TO the insurance company by either me or my company.
Yikes. Everyone was on the dole-queue with their hands out.
I just want to thank the rest of you US Citizens for helping me pay for my agonizing major "wound" by paying even higher premiums.
It was touch and go there for a while and I did not know if I would ever pull through. Clearly a lesser man would not have survived.
Yikes.
There I was no Sh.... uh this really happened.
A few months ago, I received a small cut (about 1 inch) on the bottom of one of my toes. A very minor cut. But, unfortunately, it was right on the crease of one of my toe joints so every time I walked, the cut was stressed. But hardly Purple Heart material.
I got an infection so I went to one of our local clinics and received a dose of antibiotics. This took care of the infection but soon after completing the antibiotics, the infection came back. Rats
I then went to my GP. He looked at it and determined that this cut certainly did not need any stitches but he wanted to treat the infection, so he put me on a stronger and longer set of antibiotics. This took care of the infection but after completing this set of antibiotics the infection came back. I was worried that I had a persistent infection and so was the doctor.
But this is when it started getting weird.
My GP referred me to a podiatrist surgeon's office. Not just a podiatrist, but a podiatrist surgeon. This surgeon's office required full payment in advance meaning that they would submit the paperwork to the insurance. This should have been my first indicator of the scam. This office did not want to deal with my insurance company and they wanted their money upfront instead of my paying my co-pay and then being billed for any non-insurance covered balance.
I saw the podiatrist Surgeon for less than 10 minutes. I am not sure he actually touched my foot, but at least he looked at it. He wanted to sell me a kneeling scooter and a hard boot. When I hesitated, he assured me that the insurance would pay for all of it and that I should not worry.
When I asked if I really needed this, he gave me a strange look.. one I would get used to as this saga continues. The look was "why do you care if there is no cost to you?"
He then wanted X-rays taken of my foot. Remember, this is still a small cut. I asked him why and he told me that he wanted to make sure that the infection had not gotten into the bone, which would be very serious indeed. I asked him if the X-ray would be diagnostic -- meaning would the results of the X-ray give him the information he needed. He assured me that it would. There seemed to be not only a lot of insurance involved but a lot of assurance.
So I went to another office for an X-ray of my foot. I guess podiatrists don't do X-rays any more. This, of course, meant another payment and of course I needed the services of a radiologist to interpret the X-ray. OK, this sounds reasonable.
The podiatrist, without seeing the X-rays, then sent me to a "wound center". This evidently is a special medical office that handles boo boos. My doctor can't handle a small cut? And evidently a podiatrist SURGEON is unable to deal with a small cut either.
So I go to yet another office -- The Wound Center. Yet another payment.
They also try to sell me a kneeling scooter but evidently this office does not get kickbacks from hard boots, so their sales job was that I needed to get an custom made orthopedic insert for my shoe.
Pop quiz: What did I have wrong with me? Anyone? Buelier? Right! A small less than 1 inch cut on my toe.
Again when I questioned why I needed a both a scooter (that raises the injured foot off the ground) AND an orthopedic insert I got the same comforting assurance "Don't worry, the insurance will cover all of it"
"That's not the point." I asked, Why do I need this? Confused looks abound about why I won't want "free" stuff
The technician at the wound center then abraded the wound nicely and then applied a silver infused dressing. And told me not to get the foot wet.
Protip: If you cut your foot, evidently the worst thing you can do is take a shower like I was doing. The infection came back because I was washing the toe in the shower when I should have been keeping it dry. That was what was wrong with my toe!
So they wanted to sell me a special water proof dressing cover for about $75.00 with assurance that the insurance company would pay for it. No, what I needed was a $15.00 cast boot which was what I ended up doing.
Not being able to make the sale on the orthopedic insert or the scooter, it was then necessary for me to get an MRI.
"why?"
"We need to check to see if the infection has gotten into the toe bone."
"What did the X-ray results show?"
"What X-ray" (face palm) Evidently they did not like the fact that I had already been hit up with an X-ray and they were not getting their cut.
After a few days they got the X-ray report from the Radiologist and guess what? Right! The radiologist can't tell. Evidently an X-ray is not diagnostic for this. By this time several days have gone by and the combination of the excellent abrading, the silver infused dressing and, probably most importantly, keeping the stupid foot dry, it was healing up nicely. No antibiotics needed. This was after four "treatments" each with a separate fee of course.
So it was a quick "no thank you for the MRI". The wound center was stymied. They had some quotas to meet and I was not cooperating.
It just so happened that associated with the Wound Center (aka someone's brother in law) there was an Infectious Disease Specialist.
I asked what this IDS would be doing and was told "Oh she will just be monitoring your recovery.
Really? But of course since technically it was a separate office there would be another fee.
But "monitoring" my "recovery....for a small cut on my toe. I did notice that there was no talk about taking any tissue samples to test to find out what type of infection I had.... because the infection was almost gone.
So what would this specialist be monitoring other than my bank account?
I politely thanked them all for their dedication to the medical industry and took my leave. By keeping wound clean and more importantly dry, it healed up nicely and has stayed healed ever since.
So for a small cut on my foot I was directed to see
1. My GP
2. A Podiatrist Surgeon
3. An X-ray office with radiologist
4. A wound center
5. An Infectious Disease Specialist
Where I was pressured multiple times to get a kneeling scooter, hard boot, custom made orthopedic inserts, and an MRI
But the insurance would pay for this.
For something that just needed a dressing and someone to tell me to keep it dry.
My out of pocket expense for all of this was over $500.00 I have no idea what my insurance company paid but I am sure it was many hundreds probably low digit thousands.
This to me is one of the problems with out health care system. A Doctor (GP) can't take care of a simple cut. Something that my mommy could have taken care of. Instead there were four specialists of which I only agreed to see three.
But what really got to me was their attitude of "don't worry, the insurance will cover this". That's not the point. We all need to help keep medical costs down. But I guess there are people who would want anything and everything as long as the insurance would "cover it". It still costs money and that money eventually needs to be paid TO the insurance company by either me or my company.
Yikes. Everyone was on the dole-queue with their hands out.
I just want to thank the rest of you US Citizens for helping me pay for my agonizing major "wound" by paying even higher premiums.
It was touch and go there for a while and I did not know if I would ever pull through. Clearly a lesser man would not have survived.
Yikes.