In order to see ANY specialist, you must have a referral from a primary care doctor or another doctor. I live miles from all specialists, so scheduling an appointment with any physician is a major effort. I have to keep calling/e-mailing or then, eventually, sometimes even driving miles to my primary doctor with referral information/form in hand, and still have to keep nagging the clinic for a referral. I have also had some specialists require a referral for EACH visit, if the "reason" for the second visit is different from the reason for the previous visit. And each referral requires copies of all of your medical/hospitalization records, MRIs, etc., and my doctor doesn't have all of my records, and "forgets" to send the ones he has. I then also have to get in touch with other doctors and the hospital to get a complete set of my records, so I have to make copies of all of my paper records because I have to send them, or take them myself. (But no one gets to keep the CDs of my MRIs. because I don't want to have to keep getting more and more.) The damn doctors don't take the time to look at all of that information you send/bring to them, anyway. Every doctor comes in to the appointment like their butt is on fire, just makes one easy assumption in about 5 minutes, and expects to be reimbursed from your insurance for the cost of a full exam.
This whole health care system that requires a referral for every doctor's visit is a joke. My primary care doctor wants me to visit him first (and pay him the cost of an office visit) as if I have to bribe him to let me go to another doctor, and then have to pay that doctor for another office visit there. And the time it takes for this whole process from beginning to end until the day you finally go to your appointment will usually take 3-4 MONTHS IF YOU'RE LUCKY.
I had two friends who were ill and kept trying over and over to find and get in to see doctors (all requiring referrals) over the course of a couple of years. Both of them did not get their diagnoses until their autopsies. They died not knowing why they were dying. I was diagnosed with MS, but am having unrelated health issues. But every doctor just wants to blame everything on my MS or, as a female, "It's just depression." I have all of the health insurance I need, but it isn't doing me any good. It's just a lot of payments going out to doctors I have to wait for months to see after going through a lot of hoops to get to, and then, in the end, just being dismissed as if I was just wasting their overpriced 5 minutes of time. The American health care system is broken.
This whole health care system that requires a referral for every doctor's visit is a joke. My primary care doctor wants me to visit him first (and pay him the cost of an office visit) as if I have to bribe him to let me go to another doctor, and then have to pay that doctor for another office visit there. And the time it takes for this whole process from beginning to end until the day you finally go to your appointment will usually take 3-4 MONTHS IF YOU'RE LUCKY.
I had two friends who were ill and kept trying over and over to find and get in to see doctors (all requiring referrals) over the course of a couple of years. Both of them did not get their diagnoses until their autopsies. They died not knowing why they were dying. I was diagnosed with MS, but am having unrelated health issues. But every doctor just wants to blame everything on my MS or, as a female, "It's just depression." I have all of the health insurance I need, but it isn't doing me any good. It's just a lot of payments going out to doctors I have to wait for months to see after going through a lot of hoops to get to, and then, in the end, just being dismissed as if I was just wasting their overpriced 5 minutes of time. The American health care system is broken.
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