My sister's doctor has already taken early retirement as she grew weary of no longer having time to actually spend with her patients. She was drowning in the insurance paperwork and such and became tired of the endless processes. Luckily, my sis found a new provider and is settled in with them, for now. She's on some heavy duty meds that need to be closely monitored.
My doc has decided to join a private MDVIP thing where if you wish to remain a patient, you have to pay an annual fee of $1650, which breaks down to 137.50 a month. Her sales pitch was that she'll now be available for same day/next day appointments and can spend more time with you. At that price, she better come fix my damn dinner, too. They're also charging us to get copies of our medical records. If you choose the cd option, you get 3 years worth for $10. If you want anything beyond the 3 years, you must pay 50 cents per page for the first 50 pages, then 25 cents per page for each one after that.
Luckily, (knock on wood) I haven't needed any prescriptions or her, beyond my yearly blood work stuff, for the last couple of years. I've been a patient for many years, so I can't wait to see the final tally of what I owe. Too bad we can't just call it even after all the info/books/links/recipes I shared with her to help other patients via what I learned through my direct experiences. But as usual, monetary value trumps (pun intended) the laws of nature in the eyes of many and we all continue to pay dearly.
We have what I call the little "doc in the box" places popping up all over the place for emergency or urgent needs which allows at least an option in the meantime if need be. We learned that the ER docs aren't covered by our insurance after my gall bladder attack, so we won't be visiting them either, if we can avoid it. The insurance company will also be going out of business after the first of the year, so there's another fun thing to look forward to trying to navigate. I find it really hard to build rapport with the folks in the various professions who ultimately caused me more harm than good through the years. They can help me manage my emergencies and urgencies, but I'll never again give them that level of control in managing my health and holding me hostage in their methods.
