Medical Savvy is Learned

Unwilling to admit to the possibility of age related body breakdowns, I had semi- successfully ignored a knee injury for nearly three months.  While participating in a wonderful outdoor hike with a group of teens in August, I suddenly felt an unsolicited pain in my knee. After doing all the home remedies and finding no relief, I succumbed to my doctor’s bidding and consulted a surgeon. When you see a Surgeon, it usually means that there is no quick and easy way out.  The experience of surgery is not one of my more celebrated life adventures. So, with a narrow mind and reluctant heart, I went forward with the inevitable.

The lucky thing is that I am insured through my employer; the unthinkable aspect is the new medical accounting process. Because my conservative use of my medical had not reached my deductible and my portion of any major medical is thirty per cent, I was expected to pay the surgeon’s office one half up front and the other half in thirty days. Yikes!  Tell me where these offices enroll the peppy little front line receptionists to ask with a huge smile for your life savings.  When you try to open negotiations for payments, the list of accepted Visa and Master Cards are given with a bigger smile! 

All right a bitter pill taken, learning that the institution in charge of your health is completely stabilized behind its billing process. Smaller payments especially near Christmas would be easier tolerated, however I had no choice--pay or limp out.  The next eye opener was the surgery itself. I was instructed that my Doctor would do the procedure in our local hospital or in the same day Surgery Center.  Being a novice at such procedures, I wanted the best that is until I had to price it and learned the hospital was a staggering $4,000.00 higher then the same day Surgery Center!  Suddenly I had other more monetary priorities, especially when thirty per cent was mine to pay.  I was already into an MRI that cost a whopping $1,500.00.  Boy, maybe walking with a slight limp and constant swelling could be tolerable.

At last! The day of my surgery arrived during Thanksgiving week. I was given a prescription for pain pills and told to bring them as the Surgery Center does not provide anything except the anesthetic. What would have happened if I had forgotten the pain pills? With only clear liquid up to midnight the night prior, I had a hideous check-in time of twelve-thirty p.m. I rushed in only to be left in the waiting room for two hours. By this time, I felt a little nervous. This was a cattle call environment, not at all as I had expected. The questionnaires were endless, the nurses looked exhausted, and gurneys with other patients fled past by me. As we all looked at one another being shuttled around, there was a sense of fast food surgery style. There was even a separate back door that the still half sedated completed patients were being transported out.  Oh, this is progress? Premiums higher, patients do more for themselves than ever, and where will this road to medical extremes lead us to next? Perhaps a much more patient guided medical road, one that makes us aware of the insurance dollars, shopping for medical bargains and a more family involved recovery? When you are faced with any medical procedure or prescriptions, make phone calls and shop for the deal. I saved thirty dollars on a prescription by taking those extra steps instead of going to my nearest pharmacy. Oh yes, patient, beware! It is a new dawning, and you are your own captain. Sail in good health!

Valerie Kelly