Unfortunately, you paid for the appointment which DID happen. It’s just now useless. You didn’t pay anything toward the actual procedure, which won’t happen, correct?
Oh believe me, I get your annoyance 110%. The 2 times H needed joint replacement surgery, it was very very chaotic trying to get everything done at the end, because we were on a strict timeline. He had to get the surgery done by a certain time over the summer, so he would be able to teach again. So we run through all the tests and go beebopping into the Preop appointment to find that that lo and behold he has leukemia and has to get cleared for that. NOBODY told us this before then. It was written on the lab results that i could read, but nobody called to tell us the results or that we had a problem to deal with. The results were vague enough that I hoped it maybe wasn’t so and they were just CYA. So we were in a mad scramble trying to set up appointments, begging for results faxed ASAP, etc - not to mention the trauma of figuring out that he had cancer!
The second time I THOUGHT I was prepared. I asked the surgeon if we needed clearance again for his CLL. He said just to make sure the CLL doc was OK with it. I messaged her through their system and left a message and never heard back. The person who set up all the surgery date, and gave us all the what to do before surgery info, NEVER mentioned that we needed to do anything else. So 1-2 weeks or so before, I was wondering why we hadn’t been approached to pay for anything, pre-op visit, etc. So I had H follow up. After calling a million times in 1 day, he finally got a hold of someone that said everything was on hold, because the cancer doc never cleared him - using a form that they were never given - to them or to us! So we were both on the phone all morning calling everyone back and forth BEGGING the offices to do stuff ASAP. I was willing to drive the 1:15 in 1 direction to pick up the forms and drive them back 1:15 in the other direction if need be. We finally got the pre-op appointment 2 days before the surgery. It was a complete chaotic mess, and I probably lost 5 years of my life, lol…
And the sad part is - my experience is AWESOME compared to what happened to the people who use the medical system in my town. The stories of miscommunication, no communication, and general incompetence I hear from my co-workers (mostly taking care of their parents in-town) is mind-blowing.
Long story short - I am really sorry. I get your frustration. We are also on the high deductible insurance BTW… But I don’t see you getting any $$$ back.
The problem is that while doctors and office staff know all that needs to be done and in what order (and that’s not always a given), the patient has NO idea what needs to be done and in what order. And the staff/med office does not communicate what needs to be done and in what order. And they may not do what they are supposed to do in a timely manner. So what if they do that task next next week. The office has no problem just delaying someone’s procedure. They just change the dates in a system somewhere. It is a much bigger deal to the patient!
Yup, bigger deal. I have a family member who was scheduled for surgery for a cancerous whatever– and then came Covid lockdown. Everyone understood how necessary the new procedures were; how important it was to protect people, etc. But family member’s wife dropped patient off in the parking lot of the hospital (where temperature, etc. taken) and then sat in the car for hours- either sobbing or calling the rest of the family for support- until patient hobbled out to be driven home. Even post-op– if you could walk and were not on a morphine drip, you slept at home.
Lather, rinse, repeat. Every chemo appointment. No timeline, no advance notice of “we needed to change your appointment because we’ve had an outbreak and there are no nurses available in the ambulatory chemo center”. Just a ping either confirming or cancelling appointments. Patient had no idea when the next scan might be, could be, should be. No idea how much of a “normal” treatment plan was being followed or if they were just making it up as they went along. And the “patient advocates” that the hospital was so proud of ordinarily- stuck in a huge tent in that same parking lot holding up phones so that Covid patients could speak to their loved ones. Not available for “healthy cancer patients” (an oxymoron if ever there was one!!!)