A message to my Congressman

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by Tommy

I've reached the point in life where doctor visits are not uncommon, and it annoys the hell out of me to be sitting in a small, dull room a full hour after my scheduled appointment time. I've reached the point where I will not wait more than 45 minutes unless it is to see a one-of-a-kind doctor. With that in mind, I wrote and sent the following message to my Congressman via his web site. If you agree with my sentiments, I encourage you to copy it and send it to your elected officials and friends who might agree. If not, you must be a doctor.

As long as the health care reform bill is being reconsidered, I'd like to suggest the following no cost change that should dramatically improve service for patients. I suggest the bill require health care providers who receive federal payments (e.g., Tricare and Medicare) be required to monitor and prominently post their most recent average monthly waiting time for patients. For example, if the average patient was actually seen by the doctor an average of 75 minutes after their scheduled appointment time, that information should be posted prominently. This would give patients valuable information when selecting a health care provider and would encourage providers to improve their customer service.

You can actually do a search on your doctor (their name), and look for a listing in healthgrades or vitals, and there will be patient ratings on waiting times, as well as their perceived competency, as listed by random patients.

If you don't like your doctor, then change to another (unless you're Kaiser or VA )

Originally Posted by Tommy

Following a move a few years ago, I was establishing myself with a new family doctor. His staff asked me to sign the document agreeing to pay $25 if I failed to show without canceling at least 24 hours in advance. I said I would agree if the doctor would agree to reimburse me if I were not seen within 30 minutes of my scheduled time. Neither of us agreed so the document was not signed. Of course they can't file against your insurance for a no-show, so all they can do is send bills which can be ignored.

Actually, I think it is truly illegal to bill for missed appontments. The other side of the coin is that doctors donlt want their staff to be standing around, paying for them to stand around for no-shows. You have to understand that the business of medicine, as established by medicare, followed by most insurance companies, has "set" the reimbursement pay schedules for all medical providers (doctors, hospitals, DME suppliers, etc., unlike dentistry which is still significantly out of network), and the reimbursement amounts are really kind of low such that to be profitable, a medical provider has to be efficient with their operating costs. As reimbursement continues to dwindle, it will force medical providers to be even more efficient and eliminate some of the "old freebees" such as calling in prescriptions, that is paying staff to make phone calls with no revenue generation, which is why many doctors are now requiring patients to come to the office. It's only going to get worse over time. The more government gets involved, the more regulations, the worse it is for all of us, providers and patients.

How long is the waiting time for the "free" VA healthcare ? That's the target of efficiency were aiming at.