My suggestions for dealing with doctors and health care in 2019 in the US

[cleatus]

Only got one thing to say FUCK KAISER. Those HMO Hypercontrolling fucks should be out of business for some of the things I’ve seen friends put through worse. They are the most dysfunctional cost controlling tight asses I’ve ever seen. They will do everything they can to delay tests and treatments even if it’s necessary hoping the patient will be cured miraculously. When there are law practices that only deal with malpractice against Kaiser that tells you all you need to know. They are that bad.

So when do you think a spouse or parent of a patient who has died as a result of the many cost cutting techniques practiced by insurance/health hyper corporations goes berserk and shoots up some greedy fucks? Followed by copycats

including folks in wheelchairs with backpack bombs. Followed by security cameras ringing insurance offices and hospitals out 2 miles, vehicle barriers, checkpoints, metal detectors and armed guards at all ingress/egress points.

[Sanlmar]

- 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

[David USF]

Isn't Druff still on ObamaCare?

If Druff doesn't like socialized medicine, why doesn't he cancel it and get some sort of health insurance through Kaiser Permanente? (Kaiser runs a lot of hospitals throughout California)

Only got one thing to say FUCK KAISER. Those HMO Hypercontrolling fucks should be out of business for some of the things I’ve seen friends put through worse. They are the most dysfunctional cost controlling tight asses I’ve ever seen. They will do everything they can to delay tests and treatments even if it’s necessary hoping the patient will be cured miraculously. When there are law practices that only deal with malpractice against Kaiser that tells you all you need to know. They are that bad.

I guess I'm lucky, then. My family have been with Kaiser for 50+ years and have had no major problems with them.

[Salty_Aus]

- 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

I do it myself every couple of years, warm water and 10ml syringe... some olive oil to soften first if needed.

But you already knew that.

[Dan Druff]

Regarding the physical scam, it has become so commonplace that even doctor who are otherwise non-shady (like the one I see now) are pulling it.

If you attempt to question the office manager on this, they treat you like you're the crazy one.

I actually backed down last year when presented with a $40 bill for my co-pay for a "gastro exam" which supposedly occurred with my physical. There was no exam. He asked me if I have other issues, and I said I was getting some abdominal pain. We talked for a few minutes about it.

Anyway, the reason I backed down is because this is the only decent general doctor in the area who takes my lol Obamacare insurance, so I couldn't piss them off over something so minor. So I paid the $40, and told them that next year I'd just state in advance that I want the very basic physical with no upcharges, and they said that was fine.

[blake]

i might have missed this explanation, but druff, why are you using obamacare insurance? did you go through the website?

[Wiganer]

You're living in a fucked up world of autistic navel gazers(trying to be nice)
if you would actually employ any suggestions from the OP

The OP is a nut case. OK, it takes one to know one.
This "short story" we're supposed to digest, may be
something to pay attention to if we were living in
Zambia. But no, it's the richest country struggling
to deal with health care

There is free healthcare in Zambia. They have challenges as it’s a developing country, but things are improving.

[Dan Druff]

i might have missed this explanation, but druff, why are you using obamacare insurance? did you go through the website?

I call it Obamacare even though I'm not getting a subsidy.

Obamacare is basically individual insurance with new rules and subsidies for those who qualify. I don't qualify for the subsidy, but other than that, I have the same type of plan. It's my only choice, as I don't have workplace insurance.

Also, LOL @ limitles trying to compared the US healthcare to the "free" care in Zambia.

As you might guess, "free" doesn't always mean "good". Third-world African nations are notorious for having absolutely awful healthcare, hence Zambia's low life expectancy (61.8 years, which is terrible in 2019).

US heathcare is actually very good. It's just way too expensive, and the opaque/complex/arbitrary billing system allows for the consumer and the insurance companies to get screwed often (which then gets passed on to the patients through higher rates). There are also unnecessary tests and procedures done, in order to pad bills (and sometimes for doctors to protect themselves legally), but that's a side-effect of our existing cost problem.

Some cite higher life expectancies in other first world countries as evidence that their healthcare is "better", but that's misleading. Take out the early deaths from drugs/alcohol, violence, and other voluntary unhealthy lifestyles (from all countries), and the US looks excellent. From a pure healthcare perspective (ignoring cost), you want to be in the US if something goes wrong with your health.

Additionally, countries with socialized medicine are notoriously bad with long waiting times to see a specialist and get tests for non-emergencies. It's also a lot tougher to get approved for tests, often beyond reasonable prudence. This doesn't necessarily take years of people's lives, but it lowers the quality of life. That's not trivial, either. In the US, you can see usually doctors quickly, even with the existing doctor shortage.

[limitles]

You're living in a fucked up world of autistic navel gazers(trying to be nice)
if you would actually employ any suggestions from the OP

The OP is a nut case. OK, it takes one to know one.
This "short story" we're supposed to digest, may be
something to pay attention to if we were living in
Zambia. But no, it's the richest country struggling
to deal with health care

There is free healthcare in Zambia. They have challenges as it’s a developing country, but things are improving.

As as I said, glad to hear this, gladder to hear from you and not some hippopotamus