- If getting a "free" annual physical, do not ask any questions of the doctor, and do not bring up any other health concerns. This will allow them to bill you for one or more items, even if the discussion lasts 10 seconds. In fact, state at the beginning of the physical (to the scheduler) that you don't want any additional charges, and that you want the free annual physical, and nothing else.
I saw BCR comment that he felt Druff ran bad here.
This past year during my physical I went over stuff I had been curious about in the past year. Same thing I do every year. I am the same guy with the same body.
However, this year my health insurance statement had innumerable charges for things that sounded pretty scary. Every thing I mentioned had a corresponding charge to the health insurance carrier. I was stunned.
It didn’t cost me but it was disconcerting. It’s fraudulent in my view. It’s creepy to be associated with sketchy shit. I am now distrustful of my doctor. It never was like that.
So BCR you may be running behind the curve. Good for you but it’s coming. It’s called incremental revenue.
The past couple years I’ve gotten my ears “professionally detailed”. Lol. I call the nurse practitioner and say my ears are full of wax and I can’t flush them myself. She schedules me. I drop the $25 copay and a nurse would flush my ears with a warm peroxide solution.
The result is amazing. They show me the stuff coming out and I’m amazed. Feels so great and the difference in hearing is marked. $25 spa treatment
I chit chat with the nurse. She says she does many a day. Swimmers are big. Some people have small ear canals. It’s a big activity. She said one woman does it monthly.
So in the past year the office manager had an epiphany. Require a doctor to look in on the patient first under the guise that they are screening for a more serious issue. 5 minutes and huge incremental revenue. Boom! Give that manager a bonus.
So I call the other day. The nurse says, I gotta see the doctor. What? We never did that before.
Business is business.
The health care racket is exploding, BCR