Doctors Out Of Control

[Burned-Again]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Ohio

I have recurrent gouty arthritis but a very normal Uric Acid level.

Back in late 2010, early 2011, I had a General Practitioner who prescribed the newest and most expensive Uric Acid control med she could find. It was so expensive that my insurance refuse to cover it. So I asked her to change it to one they would cover but she refused, saying that was the med I needed. I was taking it for granted that my lab tests had shown a high uric acid level as that is what she told me. But when she refused to change that expensive med I became suspicious and so went to the lab that did the original tests ad obtained copies. Well, what a shock it was to me to find out that General Practitioner had lied to me as the lab test showed my uric acid level to be perfectly normal. That kind of taught me not to be too trusting of doctors. And in that case I simply changed doctors and made no further issue of it. I can only figure she was getting perks from that drug company, but who knows.

But now I have run into another conniving doctor. This time it is an orthopedist. I was sent to him by ER doctors specifically to have a joint fluid extraction but when I showed up there and told him that, he said to me, "But I do not want to do that." He refused me that service and went into trying to convince me I might need a knee transplant which I know and knew I most certainly did not need. My joints work just fine and pain free when there is no gout inflaming them. It does not take a rocket scientist to figure that out.

Anyway, after the second time I told him that I had only come to him for that fluid extraction and he poo-pooed it once again, I let him finish his insane spiel and as soon as he walked out I also walked out, declaring that if he was going to refuse the service to me that the ER doctors sent me there to have done he could stick his ideas up his behind and I warned him not to take his nonsense to my insurance company. He mentioned he would have to do that to get authorization to do the things he was espousing wanting to do which I was very clearly telling him I was not there to have done.

Can you believe it! After I walked out he not only contacted my insurance company but has now sent me a bill when the fact is that he refused me the service I went to him for. I have filed a grievance with my insurance company concerning it but have not heard back as of yet.

I want to see this creep humbled in a court of law so that he thinks twice before pulling his crap on anyone else but I figure that I have to first exhaust all administrative resources in effort to resolve the impropriety. At the moment it seems the only way I will get it resolved is to turn to litigation so I do not really expect much to come of the administrative paths. But jerks like that really have my dander up!

One more thing. I never signed any papers with that doctor. I yet have them with me here at home as I carried them out with me instead of turning them into his front desk. I wasn't about to turn them in after his denying me the only service i had gone to him to obtain.

Any observations and suggestions would be appreciated.

 

[OHRoadwarrior]

Why don't you just drink black cherry juice?

 

[anearthw]

How much was your bill?

You cannot go to a specialist and demand they perform based on an ER diagnosis/suggestion. That's absurd. He has the right (if he has any sense) to make his own evaluation.

 

[Gail in Georgia]

Was this bill for the office visit?

If so, you owe it even if you refuse to take the recommendations the Orthopod made. You are paying for his time to see you and provide his medical opinion even if you choose not to follow through with this.

Gail

 

[justalayman]

How much was your bill?

You cannot go to a specialist and demand they perform based on an ER diagnosis/suggestion. That's absurd. He has the right (if he has any sense) to make his own evaluation.

The right? He has an obligation to verify the recommended procedure is proper.

 

[Burned-Again]

Why don't you just drink black cherry juice?

LOL. Thank you for caring about the suffering.

I do drink black cherry juice but I still get these frequent bouts with gout moving around to different joints.

When I went to the ER this last time, which was 11-05-2015, it had my left knee swollen and hot and in dire pain but here about a month ago I was back to my General Practitioner with it in my right ankle just as swollen and hot and painful.

It moves all around my legs like that and once in a while it even seems to get into my backbone.

For that reason, over the about ten years I have had the problem the different doctors have labeled it different names, like cellulitis and a few other names. I have even have it seem to only lodge in the tendons of one or the other of my calves. They put me on antibiotics and then on the type of antibiotics for resistant infections and that always seemed to clear it up in a much shorter time. But for some reason when I moved to a new home town in Northern Ohio about three or four years ago they put me on the type of antibiotics for resistant infections only the first time I visited the ER and never again since that time. And I get super bad flareups a minimum of four times a year. If I count the milder flareups it would be about 7 or 8 times a year.

The severe attacks leave me having to crawl in dire pain just to try and make it to the bathroom. That is how debilitating it is. And crutches are of no help in those severe bouts as it is too agonizingly painful to use them. I live up three flights of stairs and so I have not yet gotten a wheel chair. I don't want to move as my rent is real reasonable and being up so high in the air I get good TV off of amplified rabbit ears which saves me having to pay a cable bill. I do need to get a wheel chair, however, if only to use it in my apartment.

I will turn 63 in about two months and on top of it all I have Meniere's disease which has made me go completely deaf in one ear and taunted me with frequent dizziness and vertigo attacks. But I am not near ready to give up yet.

The psychological anguish of having to deal with doctors like that Orthopedic doctor is shown in things like that I am to go to the same Professional services he is a part of this next Wednesday October 10, 2016 for surgery on a badly ruptured belly button and having to fight with one of their doctors makes me feel very insecure about following through with it. But I have to.

It is like they have the upper hand on us and some of them seem to think that gives them the right to treat us like nothing but an opportunity to make money. It is extremely frustrating.

 

[anearthw]

LOL. Thank you for caring about the suffering.

I do drink black cherry juice but I still get these frequent bouts with gout moving around to different joints.

When I went to the ER this last time, which was 11-05-2015, it had my left knee swollen and hot and in dire pain but here about a month ago I was back to my General Practitioner with it in my right ankle just as swollen and hot and painful.

It moves all around my legs like that and once in a while it even seems to get into my backbone.

For that reason, over the about ten years I have had the problem the different doctors have labeled it different names, like cellulitis and a few other names. I have even have it seem to only lodge in the tendons of one or the other of my calves. They put me on antibiotics and then on the type of antibiotics for resistant infections and that always seemed to clear it up in a much shorter time. But for some reason when I moved to a new home town in Northern Ohio about three or four years ago they put me on the type of antibiotics for resistant infections only the first time I visited the ER and never again since that time. And I get super bad flareups a minimum of four times a year. If I count the milder flareups it would be about 7 or 8 times a year.

The severe attacks leave me having to crawl in dire pain just to try and make it to the bathroom. That is how debilitating it is. And crutches are of no help in those severe bouts as it is too agonizingly painful to use them. I live up three flights of stairs and so I have not yet gotten a wheel chair. I don't want to move as my rent is real reasonable and being up so high in the air I get good TV off of amplified rabbit ears which saves me having to pay a cable bill. I do need to get a wheel chair, however, if only to use it in my apartment.

I will turn 63 in about two months and on top of it all I have Meniere's disease which has made me go completely deaf in one ear and taunted me with frequent dizziness and vertigo attacks. But I am not near ready to give up yet.

The psychological anguish of having to deal with doctors like that Orthopedic doctor is shown in things like that I am to go to the same Professional services he is a part of this next Wednesday October 10, 2016 for surgery on a badly ruptured belly button and having to fight with one of their doctors makes me feel very insecure about following through with it. But I have to.

It is like they have the upper hand on us and some of them seem to think that gives them the right to treat us like nothing but an opportunity to make money. It is extremely frustrating.

It sounds like a very painful thing to go through. None of that changes the fact that specialists have far more training and experience in their area, and will determine whether or not a procedure is warranted. You have zero standing to demand that a doctor perform a general ER recommendation, let alone your own as a layman. That's absurd. Your attitude towards what doctors do in general needs an adjustment. Most are not in thr habit of ruining their reputation/risking malpractice by doing whatever a patient demands.

 

[anearthw]

The right? He has an obligation to verify the recommended procedure is proper.

Absolutely, that's the correct word for it

 

[Burned-Again]

How much was your bill?

You cannot go to a specialist and demand they perform based on an ER diagnosis/suggestion. That's absurd. He has the right (if he has any sense) to make his own evaluation.

That in the ER was no mere suggestion. Dr Xxx drilled it at me repeating it three times, the third time making me repeat word for word what he had told and he emphasized that a joint fluid extraction was the only sure way of ending this swinging in the air that the doctors have been doing, not giving a damn that my pain continues on.

I have full right to choose what contract I am willing to enter into or not willing to enter into.

That BST wasted both his time and mine and if you think I should have to pay him for that you are as criminal minded as he is.

Money centered people that think as you do in putting the dollar above people are why medical expenses are so out of control in the U.S.A. and why doctors get away letting their patients suffer rather than always doing the most logical things for them. No real doctor would claim I might need a knee transplant and delay the best course of treatment to me. There is not a damn thing wrong with my joints until that gout flares in them.

What I have not told you is that I studied law for many years and have in the courts.

I told that damn doctor right from the get-go that I was there for one thing and one thing only.

Watch for the matter to become public and after I get done with that, then see if you still think the same.

I am not going to spare any recourse against him. His only hope would have been to accept that he was the one that denied the service and let the matter be over. Then I would not have it to do what he is forcing me to do to him. It is his own damn fault.

When I get done with him hopefully ignoramuses that think life is nothing but a business such as yourself will think twice before opening their disgusting mouths.

 

[Burned-Again]

Was this bill for the office visit?

If so, you owe it even if you refuse to take the recommendations the Orthopod made. You are paying for his time to see you and provide his medical opinion even if you choose not to follow through with this.

Gail

Office visits are only chargeable if I get a service or because of my own actions i do not get a service.

There was only ever one service asked for and the doctor is the one that denied the performance of that service.

If doctors could always charge for an office visit they could get rich off of luring people to their offices under false pretenses.

That is what is wrong in this world. The greedy practices in it have made people ignorant so that they no longer know how to think logically.

 

[commentator]

Did I miss something? Have you told us whether or not you are on SSDI or whether you are employed and have health insurance through a job or are you on SSI and Medicaid (whatever it is in your state.) Either way, you mention telling someone not to bill your insurance, which is absurd if the doctor actually saw you and examined you in ANY capacity.

It sounds like you would be far too unhealthy to work, and too busy with your repeated doctor's appointments to do anything much else. Are you still working? Your attitude toward the doctors you deal with is sounding a bit unhealthy and paranoid. You can't "see this creep humbled in a court of law" and it sounds like you are in a combative relationship with several of these creeps at a time.

But every orthopedic I have ever been to (and that is several!) recommended nothing until they had examined me, looked at my previous records, and more than likely done x-rays and scans and such, but even if you engaged with him the minute you walked in, demanded a certain treatment which he told you that you didn't need, recommended something you didn't want, you still don't get to tell him "not to involve my insurance company!" If he gave you his time, you owe him at least for an examination. That's not ripping you off, that's normal practice of medicine.

 

[anearthw]

You did receive a service. You were given an opinion from a specialist, who has far more training in that area than an ER doctor. After all, that's why you were sent there. The fact that you did not agree with his recommendation does not mean a service was not rendered.

 

[Burned-Again]

Absolutely, that's the correct word for it

He does not have a right to do anything but what I asked him to do or to refuse to do it.

When he refused it that was the same as refusing to enter into any contract with me and I never signed any papers with him anyway.

You will see why I am damn sure he is not going to get away with it when this matter gets past administrative resources and i am able to place it before a court of law.

I have studied law far enough to even carry the matter on through to the federal level if I am forced to.

Keep watching. You will learn something.

 

[anearthw]

Are you expecting a lawyer to take this case on contingency?

 

[Burned-Again]

Did I miss something? Have you told us whether or not you are on SSDI or whether you are employed and have health insurance through a job or are you on SSI and Medicaid (whatever it is in your state.) Either way, you mention telling someone not to bill your insurance, which is absurd if the doctor actually saw you and examined you in ANY capacity.

It sounds like you would be far too unhealthy to work, and too busy with your repeated doctor's appointments to do anything much else. Are you still working? Your attitude toward the doctors you deal with is sounding a bit unhealthy and paranoid. You can't "see this creep humbled in a court of law" and it sounds like you are in a combative relationship with several of these creeps at a time.

But every orthopedic I have ever been to (and that is several!) recommended nothing until they had examined me, looked at my previous records, and more than likely done x-rays and scans and such, but even if you engaged with him the minute you walked in, demanded a certain treatment which he told you that you didn't need, recommended something you didn't want, you still don't get to tell him "not to involve my insurance company!" If he gave you his time, you owe him at least for an examination. That's not ripping you off, that's normal practice of medicine.

No, your reasoning is absurd.

I was not sent to him for an examination.

I was sent to him because to get a joint fluid extraction done it has to be done by an Orthopedist.

A joint fluid extraction is a well established and widely accepted legitimate test.

It is no different than when one is sent to a lab for specific tests. That lab cannot tell you, "No, I would rather perform other tests."

Whether you realize it or not, doctors function in more than one capacity. They can function as the one in charge of the diagnosis or they can function as a mere test taker on behalf of other doctors who are in charge of the diagnosis.

I sought the service of a mere Orthopedic test taker and would not have gone to him for any more than that.

Mammon tainted advisers is like a disease in and of itself destroying America.