When I was a kid I got all my healthcare done a Group Health. This health care provider had your primary doctor take care of all aspects of your medical care. If you wanted to see a specialist your primary would consult with you first then set up the appointment if it was needed. I can even remember going to their "emergency room" for stomach pain and once I was diagnosed as needing an appendectomy being transferred to the hospital.
20 years later I am the master of my own medical destiny. If I want to see a specialist I just call up and get an appointment. If I want to see a natural doctor in Connecticut I can, and I do (by the way BCBS covers the cost). If I want to go to John Hopkins to see a specialist I can, and I do. I try to pop in now and again to keep my primary care physician updated, but not as much as I should. So right now I have three doctors helping me and none of them talk to each other.
That is a big problem. It makes me wonder who exactly is managing my care?
I am. That's scary!
I need to find a way to address this problem so that a qualified medical expert is in the loop with all my medical details, in contact with everyone, and helping me to manage my care.
20 years later I am the master of my own medical destiny. If I want to see a specialist I just call up and get an appointment. If I want to see a natural doctor in Connecticut I can, and I do (by the way BCBS covers the cost). If I want to go to John Hopkins to see a specialist I can, and I do. I try to pop in now and again to keep my primary care physician updated, but not as much as I should. So right now I have three doctors helping me and none of them talk to each other.
That is a big problem. It makes me wonder who exactly is managing my care?
I am. That's scary!
I need to find a way to address this problem so that a qualified medical expert is in the loop with all my medical details, in contact with everyone, and helping me to manage my care.
Good luck with this one. This is a HUGE problem with medicine in America today.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, modern era primary care providers (the old "family doctors") are now too busy trying to see enough patients a day just to pay their overhead expenses. They don't have the time to truly manage any one patient's care anymore. Insurance plans both public and private continue to reduce reimbursement to primary providers, so they make up the difference with volume.
A good part of any clinician's day is spent on the phone justifying, arguing and pleading with insurance companies on behalf of their patients. "Yes Mr. Insurance Company Bureaucrat, my patient Mr. X NEEDS this expensive drug. No, the generic you allow is not effective. I've tried it and he got worse..." You get the idea.
Many large primary care practices even have office staff that make six figure salaries because they're certified coders and/or billers and know how to navigate the maze.
This is also why a very large percentage of current medical school grads are subspecializing; they make more money per patient visit and a higher annual salary. Google 'average salary of a primary care physician' and see what comes up. Many blue collar professions pay better!
The best thing you can do is collect all of the information you get at each specialist visit and bring it with you to every other appointment you have. Much of it won't be relevant, but some might.
The lack of communication in modern medicine is the unintended consequence of many factors. Unfortunately, as patients demand more freedom to see who they choose when they choose, continue to argue against gatekeeping by insurance plans and seek care far and wide looking for the "best doctor", this type of fracturing will continue.
The industry is trying to correct the appalling lack of communication with electronic medical records, but as of yet, there is no consensus on what is required and what would be most useful. Add on the cost issue. What we have as a result is a variety of systems, many of them very good in their own right, that don't communicate with one another.
Again, the best thing you can do is be your own advocate. Collect information and ask questions.