Doctor office vent

[sam_gordon]

First the background...

DW & I have been going to the same doctor's office for probably close to 10 years now. We used to see different providers (more in a moment), both NPs. The office is less than 10 minutes from our house, and they've been very accommodating when fitting us in for illness or anything else.

Late last year, the NP (A) I was seeing retired, so they "moved" me to the NP (B) DW saw (no problem). The first appointment I had with her, they introduced me to the new NP (C) that I would see. No problem.

But now the annoying things have started...
* Years ago, they used to have a "patient portal" where you could see appointments, test results, diagnosis, etc. For some reason that's gone away.
* A couple of weeks ago they called me on Friday to confirm an appointment for Monday with NP (C). I looked at my calendar, didn't have anything listed, and was going to be out of town, so I cancelled the appointment. When looking to make it up, I see on my calendar and they see on theirs that I had an appointment scheduled with NP (B) two weeks later. It's my habit, that while I'm still standing at the appointment desk to add the next appointment into my calendar. I have no idea where the appointment with NP (C) came from, and why would I book two appointments two weeks apart with two different NPs?
* DW and I each got bills in the mail from the office yesterday. My bill has things going back to September of last year, DW has things going back to December. We don't remember getting any bills before. No money is collected at visits, and nothing has been said at the visits about having outstanding balances (why would that not be done at either check in or check out?).

I'm about ready to change providers. All of our "specialists" are tied into a major organization, that can share/see things amongst them. It even came in handy when I went to the ER out of state, they could pull up all of my records. I think it's about time to switch PCP to someone in that organization. My main concern is availability for "one offs" and getting prescriptions caught back up.

Any thoughts? Even if my issues seem petty?

 

[SandyinMonterey]

We have a co-pay at doctor's offices. $30 for PCP, $75 for specialist. I always make sure that is paid upon telling front desk we're there. There are times I do have to say "can I pay my co-pay now?" Really don't have anything else in the way of bills coming afterwards because, with our insurance, if something is done within the doctor's office, it's covered. It's only when having a procedure done elsewhere (hospital, out patient, clinic, etc) that it falls under the deductible rule. Do you receive EOB's? Usually a week or two after a visit, we receive EOB (explanation of benefits) from the visit. What is covered, what is paid, what is owed. Hospitals and doctors office have a year to bill you.

 

[mjkacmom]

Most of our providers bill us. I’ve switch offices many times, there are two big medical groups here and my providers are split between the two (just turned out that way, there were no groups when I first started seeing them).

 

[robinb]

I wonder if your NP’s office was suddenly out of network and it took them 6 months to figure it out.

 

[sam_gordon]

I wonder if your NP’s office was suddenly out of network and it took them 6 months to figure it out.

No. The amount of the bills was entirely normal ($25 for each visit) AND showed what insurance covered. My issue is just letting these charges stack up. Like everyone else, we have a lot of things in our life, and unless we get a bill for something, it quickly goes off our "radar" and we forget about it.

To answer @SandyinMonterey, we get EOBs electronically (just posted, not even emailed). When we first started going there, they'd collect the copay the day of the visit. Then one time they just stopped. When we asked about paying, they just said "no, we'll send you a bill after insurance does their thing."

 

[amcnj]

I know many doctor offices here don’t take cash anymore. Most take credit cards at the window, but some bill you.

A patient portal around here was temporarily suspended due to hacking issues.

It sounds like that office doesn’t have their act together. Have you contacted them and asked what is going on, and what is causing all these issues? Did they recently get a new system or something?

 

[Kooks and Bay Bay]

Its unlikely you'll find anywhere that doesn't have these same dumb issues these days.
Ever since C doctors offices moved to hiring 3rd party companies to schedule appt and do billing.

Its frustrating. I was told by my primary I needed to see a Cardiologist. The Cardiologist told me I'm fine and no reason to be seen again and no one really knew why I was there and my primary never told me what they were concerned about.
A couple months later I got a bill saying that Medicare didn't pay anything and my insurance company paid x amount and I owed the rest.
Um I don't have Medicare and whatever my insurance company paid is what you get because balance billing is illegal in my state.
It took me 3 months to get it straightened out.
Then I got a call that I had an appt coming up and I had to tell them to cancel it because I had been told there was nothing wrong with me and no reason to come back.
No clue where people are getting their info from.

I just try to avoid doctors appts as much as possible.

 

[sam_gordon]

Have you contacted them and asked what is going on, and what is causing all these issues? Did they recently get a new system or something?

I'm going to ask at my appointment Thursday. Particularly about the patient portal and the stacked up bills (which I'll pay while I'm there).

 

[Starport Seven-Five]

Its unlikely you'll find anywhere that doesn't have these same dumb issues these days.
Ever since C doctors offices moved to hiring 3rd party companies to schedule appt and do billing.

I have had some horrendous experiences trying to resolve issues with those third party billing companies. Every time I called it had to be sent to a different department or escalated and they of course never call back and give you an answer... so you just wait until you get another bill in the mail and see your issue has not been resolved.

 

[CynBeth]

It seems more and more companies no matter what type are outsourcing for customer service and other things and they are awful. I used to be part of a medical billing company and anything the offshore handled they did wrong we always had to fix their screw ups. Right around Thanksgiving most people except for managers and team leads and a few others were told we are getting laid off in 3 months the offshore are taking our positions. I can only imagine how bad things are with them doing just about everything. I was fortunate to get another billing job that is remote for a doctor group and they also have offshore for some things and no surprise they suck. I keep having issues with our local paper where some days the paper has not come or the tv magazine I pay extra for and of course the offshore person says it will be delivered later in the day and it never is. The magazine comes every other Sunday and for the last one we didn’t get it so my DH called and was told someone would deliver it. He called every day for almost a week and each time was told someone would bring it which did not happen until the last person he spoke to said they can only bring it on a Sunday we had to wait and of course it did not come that Sunday. Unfortunately when you ask for a supervisor they are also offshore so nothing gets resolved. When we try asking for someone onshore they say there is no customer service in the US.

 

[lanejudy]

It sounds like that practice has shifted to, or changed, 3rd party billing. Are you sure they offer NO patient portal? Or did it change and you’ll need to set-up a new log-in/password. Billing may have been delayed if they were in transition, or somehow the system had you set for electronic billing and they’ve now caught up to the fact you never activated an account in a new system. If they aren’t charging you late fees, I wouldn’t get upset because they must realize the delay is on their end.

As to the scheduling… you said you were introduced to C as your new provider. It sounds like B may have seen you in the interim, but it was expected you would see C for routine visits going forward - hence the appointment with C. If B is accepting new patients and able to see you, and that’s who you prefer, just stick with B. Again if they switched to a new patient portal and you somehow missed info about it, quite possibly you’ll find notices there. I always set up email notifications within a patient portal because I don’t randomly check either.

 

[MIGrandma]

It seems like it’s getting more and more difficult to deal with doctor issues these days. I understand your frustration. I had been going to the same local doctor’s office since 1975. A few different doctors over the years as one retired, a couple moved away, etc. Then the doctor I had been seeing for several years gave up his private practice and I followed him to the new one. There he was seeing patients in the morning and then teaching at the hospital. A couple years later he went back to his own private practice, but I didn’t go back with him. The office I go to is a teaching facility and the doctors there are residents who agree to stay on for 3 years. Then most move back to their home state. So I have had 3-4 different doctors, and now again my doctor is going back to Montana so I will be assigned another new doctor in June. The older I get the less I like having to start over again with a new doctor. So I am considering switching to another office that isn’t a teaching facility.

 

[cabanafrau]

It seems like it’s getting more and more difficult to deal with doctor issues these days. I understand your frustration. I had been going to the same local doctor’s office since 1975. A few different doctors over the years as one retired, a couple moved away, etc. Then the doctor I had been seeing for several years gave up his private practice and I followed him to the new one. There he was seeing patients in the morning and then teaching at the hospital. A couple years later he went back to his own private practice, but I didn’t go back with him. The office I go to is a teaching facility and the doctors there are residents who agree to stay on for 3 years. Then most move back to their home state. So I have had 3-4 different doctors, and now again my doctor is going back to Montana so I will be assigned another new doctor in June. The older I get the less I like having to start over again with a new doctor. So I am considering switching to another office that isn’t a teaching facility.

With my mom now in a facility, wheelchair bound and unable to transfer, doctor's appointments are quite an undertaking and transportation is very expensive. A few years back her long-time doc retired and after a few starts and stops she found one she likes. It was such a relief at her appointment to simply bring in her list of meds from the facility, allow him to go over adjustments that have been made over time and update him on things, knowing that he knows many of my mom's particulars without consulting her chart and he could pick up pretty seamlessly from where she is with her facility team. Many things would have been so much more complicated to try to run through with an entirely new provider and it would be so easy for the doc to overlook something that my mom or I didn't remember to point out. There's a lot to be said for continuity of care.