So I had my MRI and my angiogram has been approved, after i practically walked my doctors office through getting it approved. I tried to call and schedule it and they wont without a doctors order. So I called my doctors office back and let her know. She faxed over an order for an MR angiogram which is not what I need and not what was approved, I was approved and need a cerebral angiogram. So I had to talk to the radiology dept who wanted to transfer me to the dept that does the MRA and I kept telling her thats not what I need but she only wanted to pay attention to the doctor order. So I tried to call my doctors office back and they were already closed. Is it too much to ask for people to be helpful instead of stressful? or for things to just go right?
One of the things we discovered is YOU are the key to driving your medical treatment. That means you have to double check on appointments being scheduled, copies of reports sent where they are supposed to be, etc. With digital tech now, we always insist on a digital copy of the scans. (When we were first doing scans, we sometimes had to pay $100 to get an inch thick stack of the massive sheets for our copy.) We kept a journal of who we saw and when, along with their contact numbers. Amazing how many times we had to refer to it.
Is it right? Probably not. Best case is to just work through it.
Best wishes,
Ron, KS
Christine, I agree with Ron 100%. I've had my share of unpleasant experiences too, trying to keep the doctors/hospitals straight. It's not right but, mistakes do get made.
On the other hand -- Good for you in sticking up for yourself and taking the initiative to get it straightened out. '"A thumbs up" :)
Okay..this is weird. I was about to comment on another discussion and this one came up so maybe I am supposed to comment on this one...LOL. You probably will appreciate this story. 10 years ago my husband came home with a pain in his side. Took him to one of those after hour clinics and the doctor thought it was his appendix. He recommended I drive to the nearest hospital ASAP which I did. He had an appendectomy done there at the hospital that night and he recovered.
Now here comes the funny part. I drove him to Baptist Hospital because it was close and it was on my insurance plan. It seems under his insurance plan I should have taken him to Methodist. However, in an emergency under his plan you can go anyplace.
His insurance company decided that an appendectomy was elective surgery and they did not want to pay because I took him to the wrong hospital and did not get approval. HUH?
It took a year but his insurance finally paid up.
It is unfortunate but not everyone is honorable and will do the right thing. I know it is stressful but try and stay positive. We all have been through the nightmare of so-called mix-ups and survived.