For a long time people in the US have discussed the ridiculous healthcare costs. Insurance companies, healthcare providers and hospitals have made the process of saving life and promoting health a joke, a very profitable one at that.
I had my wisdom teeth removed a few months ago. While I had my family dentist in India confirm the necessity to remove two of them, the other two had to go, or so insisted my dentist and orthodontist. After the surgery, I learnt that it would not have killed me if the other two teeth were left untouched. The doctor’s son was removing the stitches after a few days when he casually said, ‘We like to take out the wisdom teeth. You never know, they might cause problems’. Preventive medicine of sorts eh!! I must say I miss my wisdom teeth….
Another time I had to visit to a dermatologist because I had a sudden spurt of breakouts on my face. She prescribed 1200 mg of erythromycin for a period of 15 days before going back to see her. Naïve me, trusted her. I went ahead and took the meds without checking the strength, only to wake up hubbs in the middle of the night on the second dose on the first day. The following morning, I called the doctor up and asked why on earth she had prescribed 1200 mg of a strong antibiotic with a side effect of mild to severe heartburn to a patient with a history of hyperacidity. She curtly told me to cut the dose by a quarter and reminded me that she was a doctor of with considerable experience. I later figured out it was a new brand of moisturizer that was causing the problem. By then I had trashed the meds and the doctor.
But the funniest incident was when my husband had a case of tendonitis in one of his fingers. We are no doctors, but we needed no special skills to determine that what he suffered from was tendonitis. After some 5 days of tiger balm and massages, I got a bit worried and insisted that we go see a physician. The doctor had a beautiful office with stunning leather armchairs and imposing bookshelves with thick fat books. He also had a dog, right there in the examination room. Now I have many doctors in my family and a few of them have dogs. But I don’t recall having walked into any doctor’s office at any point of time and been greeted by their pets. Don’t get me wrong, I love dogs, but I really would feel a lot safer in a sterile super clean examination room that smells like dettol instead of a plush room with a pet dog that sheds enough hair with which you can weave a new carpet!! Anyway, after spending 15 minutes discussing the family history and such details on a form that we had already spent 15 minutes to fill out, he spent some 10 minutes observing the finger in question. He then walked to a book shelf and spent a couple of minutes looking for the appropriate book, thumbed thru one, put it back, looked for another, put it back, chose yet another, and finally came back to us with an open page. He showed us a picture of a swollen finger and told us it was a normal thing that was called….tendonitis. Hubbs and I exchanged a look that said ‘D’uh!!’, but he must have perceived us as ignorant fools, so he went on to explain what it was. By now my husband had crossed over from a state of amusement to one of irritation. After another 15 minutes we walked out with a sample sachet of something like tiger balm, instructions to massage and a list of tests which we had just done during a physical a month ago. Dr. L wanted all the vitals done again. By now we were too weary to argue or explain…so we nodded and never went back to him.
The bills these doctors sent me…the orthodontist charged me some $600 (the insurance covered the remainder of the $3000) , the stupid but experienced dermatologist charged me close to a $100 (plus some $ 150 for the prescription meds) and the physician that taught us what tendonitis was….well he charged us only the $10 copay. But he did send a very nice letter to us and all his other patients that he was now retiring. The brochure in his office said he was 36 years old. But he had obviously made enough money to retire…wonder if they teach that in Med school as well…how to charge patients effectively so that you can retire early!!
I now
can imagine to a certain extent, as to how a person might feel when right after a 5 minute surgery they are sent
a bill for an outrageous amount of money. And I know now that it is best if you don’t trust your doctors 100%...And not just because of stories such as
this one.One of our dearest friends complained of back aches. She assumed she had hurt herself during a session of Pilates. The pain was so bad she could not move from her bed. Her chiropractor, a certain Dr. Ash Patel, gave her an appointment 2 weeks after she told him she had severe pain. 2 more weeks later they scheduled a series of tests for her, which gave them no clue about the problem. With no effective way to manage the pain (the pain killers did not workmuch) she resorted to lying on the floor for hours together to ease the pain. For some reason hubbs and I felt very strongly that she needed to get a second opinion and I was relentless in persuading her to go to someone else. By now 7 weeks were over and they had been to the ER once in the middle of the night because of the pain. The second doctor looks at her test results and asks her if she can go into surgery right away. On the way out they bump into Dear Dr. Ash Patel (with an office across Doctor No. 2) who says, ‘well, you could still have some back problems. Come see me after the surgery’ Can you believe that!! No apology…nothing…!! I swear I am going to sock that cocky guy’s jaw if I ever see him!! But anyway, what they thought was a gall bladder infection turned out to be something more serious. My friend came out of the OR after a gastric bypass surgery because the entire lower half of her stomach was damaged due to a ruptured ulcer. The second doctor thinks she could have died had they waited another week. Back problem indeed!!
I hear things like this and wonder where the real doctors are!! Or am I just not lucky enough to know them. Where are the good doctors, like that 100 year old homeopath in Jaynagar who was blind but heard my voice and told me I was drinking too much coffee? Or that doctor who went entirely by instinct and saved my husband’s life? Or that heart surgeon who had one look at my dad’s records and told us it was angina and not an MI like all the heart specialists had told us up until that minute?
It is sad that one has to be concerned about being fleeced even while getting medical care. I find myself at a loss of words. I can’t quite describe the disgust I feel or the anger that I feel. All I know is that I am not going to trust a doctor in the US easily….In India it’s a different story. I’d not go to a stranger and I feel safe with any of my doctors. I know their prime concern is my health, that I will only get tests that I need, that only parts of my body that really need to go will go. Yeah, we hear of the occasional scalpel or wad of gauze that was left inside the body after a surgery, but I’d rather take that risk than worry about being charged $129 for a mucous recovery system….in English that’s a box of Kleenex!!
Outrageous!!
