Medicare Is Getting Very Intrusive

Ditto that!
They kept leaving voice messages for hubby trying to make an appointment to come TO OUR HOME. hubby didn't want to.
One day, Hubby was hemming and hawing on the phone one day so I got on the extension. I asked who it was and what did they want. They wanted Dave's birth date so they knew who he was. I said you called our number. Obviously you know who you want. Then they wanted some other personal info. I said we don't give it over the phone and If we wanted a wellness exam, we would have asked for one in one of the last few times they called. We don't do symptomless exams. We are old! so symptoms will eventually show up. And if they kill us, so be it.
They could go back to using snail mail. We know how to read and if we want them we will answer.
Of course, that was on one of my more polite days.

 

I don't sign up for rewards programs anywhere. They are not free even if all you need is your email address down.
I go to doctors without referrals, when I need one. They let me with my insurance. So I haven't had to kick in a door yet.
The only time I had a problem was during the beginning of covid when I needed an abcess taken care of and even the clinics were afraid.
I found a small derm clinic who took me. I always recommend them because of that.

 

It depends on how far back you go. CT and MRI scans, both commercialized in the 1970s, have produced diagnostics not available prior. It was just "let's cut and look" before that. When they first came out, hospitals used to share the scanners. Medicare part B as originally written changed that. In the 1960s, there were only about 50 orderable lab tests, many of which are no longer performed as they have been replaced by much better procedures. Of course, there are drugs as well. While Mr. Clinton opening the marketing of prescription drugs to the public in the 1990s certainly changed that, there have been many drug therapies developed that have saved countless lives.

Doctors as recently as the 1970s were giving antibiotics for viral illnesses, and diseases were diagnosed that do not even exist today. I have a medical text from the 1930s that recommends rolling a cannonball over a patient's abdomen as a remedy for constipation.

The real problems with medicine, at least in the U.S. has been generated by lawyers, especially those in legislatures and bureaucracies. The billing procedures are nightmarish and every therapy is threaten with malpractice suits. Doctors have consequently relied on tests and images for diagnosis, and, as was seen during Covid, valid effective therapies were shouted down with threats of licensure removal. They now have to rely on drugs and tests for everything. That is largely why so many "GPs" refer patients to specialists, as it removes the threats to the doctor.

 

I have a BIG problem here with PA's and doctors who make an appointment for you with their recommendation. No , you can verbally recommend, I can make my own appointment. Even worse is not telling you that they made appt.

 

So as I wrote, I cancelled my wellness visit and scheduled just a regular visit. I just finished the e-checkin for the regular visit and no questions about where I store my guns and no three or so pages of questions about being able to preform daily functions. So, it is definitely Medicare asking and not my provider, unless the provider has latitude to what they can ask for the Wellness checks.

I'm not usually a conspiracy theorist (although Elvis and JFK are STILL alive and living on our base on Mars), but I really wonder why Medicare is being so intrusive. I've always been open with my doctor, but now I'm starting to wonder if it isn't best to keep things to myself. How sad is that?!

I'll add this, I have to go to the doctor every six months for a medication check. I am on medication that is nearly impossible to wean yourself off of. I told my doctor flat out that if it weren't for that medication, I wouldn't come in. She looked shocked. The medical community is too focused on QUANTITY of life rather than QUALITY of life. That should be our choice. I live in constant pain and the only thing that relieves it is naproxen sodium, but I'm not supposed to take that too often, but exercise to lose weight, but I'm in pain...and on it goes.

 

Don, you are right that medical science has made a lot of progress. I guess I am thinking more about the doctor/patient relationship and the intrusion of government into medicine and medical research.

I am old. I remember a childhood doctor who held open office hours meaning you went to his office, checked in and waited your turn. That doesn't sound so great in retrospect but I also remember that same doctor driving over 20 miles at night to make a house call when my parents feared I had polio. He was able to reassure them that it wasn't polio with a short exam and a couple of practical tests of chin touching chest and other muscle responses. My father paid him in the living room, no billing, no debt, no insurance. I'm not saying we should go back to that but there is no doubt in my mind that doctor knew his patients, cared about them and was very effective.

The bigger issue for me is government control of doctors, health insurance and the medical profession in general. As recently as the 60s and 70s I trusted our doctors, my obstetrician, the kids' pediatrician, my orthopedic doctors, specialized medicine. No more. If I hadn't already figured it out Covid would have shown me that I was right to argue against Obamacare and I am right to fear Dr. Fauci's lab experiments, all funded by taxpayers with absolutely no control over or knowledge of what the government is doing.

I could go on and on and on but I will spare everyone now and keep my appointment tomorrow like a good girl. Then my nerves might settle down. I dread doctors like the plague.

 

The billing is the thing that has changed. I had a friend whose father was an old country doctor who wanted to retire and just treat his old patients for cost. Medicare stepped in and told him he couldn't do it if they had Medicare, as he would be fined (I think it was $200) for every patient he "underbilled". You see, a doctor cannot charge anyone less than he charges Medicare. That is why the bills are so high. Hospitals are allowed two (last I knew) pay schedules, but docs not so. This ol' doctor just retired and left his patients to deal with "the System".

 

I am back from the doctor appointment and I’m happy to report that no one mentioned guns but there was a gun safety leaflet on the wall. Both the doctor and the nurse had lots of questions, probably because I hadn’t seen this doctor before.

It all went very well. They didn’t make a fuss when I refused the Covid booster. The only thing they want from me now is a bone density test. I guess that’s not too much to ask.

 

So, what happens if they ask about guns?

 

Vada will pull out her 6-shooter and tell them to "Dance!!!"

 

LOL - Covid Booster. I knew how to handle that one. I replied, "I can't have any Covid Boosters 'cuz I haven't had any Covid shots at all, so there is nothing to boost."

 

I would have replied, "No. I load all of them & display them on a table in my front yard next to a sign that says, Free, Take One."

 

Good Boy! I'll have to remember that one.