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ModeratorPermalink Reply by Ron, Kansas on February 5, 2011 at 11:20am

One of the things we discovered is YOU are the key to driving your medical treatment. That means you have to double check on appointments being scheduled, copies of reports sent where they are supposed to be, etc. With digital tech now, we always insist on a digital copy of the scans. (When we were first doing scans, we sometimes had to pay $100 to get an inch thick stack of the massive sheets for our copy.) We kept a journal of who we saw and when, along with their contact numbers. Amazing how many times we had to refer to it.

Is it right? Probably not. Best case is to just work through it.

Best wishes,
Ron, KS

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Permalink Reply by Ben Morrell on February 5, 2011 at 4:01pm

    Christine,  I agree with Ron 100%.    I've had my share of unpleasant experiences too, trying to keep the doctors/hospitals straight.    It's not right but, mistakes do get made. 

    On the other hand -- Good for you in sticking up for yourself and taking the initiative to get it straightened out.  '"A thumbs up"  :)

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Permalink Reply by Rebecca Lamb on February 5, 2011 at 7:34pm

Christine,

 

I know it can be a pain when you have to go through so much just to get what you need. I understand the frustration as a patient, but I also know how it can happen from the medical end. I am a medical scheduler for a living and I know that errors can be made when scheduling (but I also know that they are caught before someone gets the wrong test). Unfortunately the people you are working with are human, and not error free. My best advice to you is to cancel what you are scheduled for (the doctor does not have to do this), then call your doctors office and explain that you were scheduled for the wrong test so you canceled it, tell them exactly what you should have been scheduled for based on what your insurance approved (also if you call your insurance you can ask them for the CPT code for the test they approved, this code will ensure the right test is scheduled) Give the CPT code to the doctors office that you get from the insurance company, this again will ensure you get scheduled for exactly what the insurance approved. Good Luck!

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ModeratorPermalink Reply by Barbara H. on February 7, 2011 at 3:55pm

Okay..this is weird. I was about to comment on another discussion and this one came up so maybe I am supposed to comment on this one...LOL. You probably will appreciate this story. 10 years ago my husband came home with a pain in his side. Took him to one of those after hour clinics and the doctor thought it was his appendix. He recommended I drive to the nearest hospital ASAP  which I did.  He had an appendectomy done there at the hospital that night and he recovered.

Now here comes the funny part. I drove him to Baptist Hospital because it was close and it was on my insurance plan.  It seems under his insurance plan I should have taken him to Methodist. However, in an emergency under his plan you can go anyplace.

His insurance company decided that an appendectomy was elective surgery and they did not want to pay because I took him to the wrong hospital and did not get approval. HUH?

It took a year but his insurance finally paid up.

It is unfortunate but not everyone is honorable and will do the right thing. I know it is stressful but try and stay positive. We all have been through the nightmare of so-called mix-ups and survived.

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