Hello everyone. Here I am again new to an area. We just moved to middle Georgia. Very small town, no endos in our town. The nearest town is Macon and my husband says where he works folks say there is a really good Endocrinologist clinic in a nearby town, Macon, called The Jones Center. Anyway, I called them over a week ago about scheduling an appointment with a new doctor. I got a very quick answer from someone who answered the phone about sending my “doctor’s referral” from my previous endo. My doctor from Houston sent my medical records immediately to them. The woman told me to call next Thursday if I hadn’t heard from her. Well, it’s Thursday. I called an hour ago. Yes, I’m climbing the walls. I need to see a doctor like last week!!! Here’s my question to you all. Is there anyone here from this area of the country?? Anyone every heard of The Jones Center? Any opinions or experience? Anything better around here? I’m a little on edge and nervous because I’ve had some major issues the past several years in Texas with my diabetes and really need an endo and an appointment and labs ASAP. Thanks guys!! 
Atlanta Diabetes Associates comes highly recommended from @Stoner who lives in Atlanta. If you give them a call, they may know someone closer to Macon. Their staff is excellent and it’s “home”.
Good luck!
Sarah 
@Stoner gave me that information. She’s stuck in downtown Orlando traffic right now. LOL Anyway, I would recommend reaching out to her when you’ve got the time. She’s an amazing person.
Sarh 
ATL resident here – I see Jennifer Boyd there. She’s great.
Thanks. Sort of having issues here. Confused. lol
Let us know if we can be of any help. Our chat room is a great place to ask questions IRT and get answers and support day/night.
Sarah
Anyway. I am really stunned that I am still waiting on this Jones Center place. My endo in Houston has faxed them my records over 5 times now and it’s crickets from “the jones center”. I even called them again and they tell me they can do nothing for me until they get my “records”.
I don’t truly understand your situation so I’m not sure I can suggest anything which might be of use to you. But I’ll try throwing some things out for whatever they might be worth …
- Are there any UPS, Fed Ex, USPS et cetera delivery records/signatures for any of the previous 5 times your records were sent? If so then if you are again told they need your records you could tell them when and to whom the records were previously delivered. My guess is that the more deliver confirmations you have to throw at them the better.
- If Macon is reasonably close enough to allow it, can you set aside (part of) a day to just drive there and talk very, very patiently & politely with the people there. Sometimes the fact that you are physically present can make a difference. If you do try something like this it would probably also be good to take along a copy of your records if you previous endo will send them to you. That way if you are told they need your records you can push them into their face. (In a polite & respectful way, of course).
- In parallel to the above you might also try asking WTF? via their web site contact page.
http://thejonescenter.com/contact-us/
- There is also a set a “new patient forms” on the web site. Possibly a good idea to check those out as well?
http://thejonescenter.com/new-patient-forms/
- Is there any possibility any of the staff at your previous doctor can help out by contacting someone at this new place and talking it out?
Hey Dana,
This is Trip Stoner. I should be headed back to Atlanta tomorrow. The practice that Sarah gave you is very friendly and would probably recommend somewhere closer to you. The practice is about an hour and half away from Macon.
If you are not comfortable in calling them and asking for a recommendation, I would be glad to. I am working with my endo on a separate project, I could certainly email him and ask him.
Awwww…Sarah. Thank you and I certainly think the world about you.
Sorry I haven’t been able to reply to all of you. We have been been searching for a house and are finally moved in and back online. I am still in the process of finding a doctor. I have not seen a doctor now since June and have many issues and problems with my diabetes. I have an appointment at the Jones Center at the end of September but it’s not even with an actual doctor, only with a physician assistant. Like I said earlier, the Jones Center is an hour away. My husband works all day and I am going to have to drive there by myself for my appointment and I am not supposed to drive without a CGM (continuous glucose monitor). My Dexcom receiver is now way past warranty and is not even functioning properly and not at all half the time. I’m praying and crossing my fingers that I can make it to this appointment safely. Oh and also here in Georgia under my husband’s new insurance plan, the Rx coverage does NOT cover ANY long acting insulin. That’s right. It does not cover Lantus, which is what my doctor in Houston put me on, or Levemir because they tell me it is a formulary. Excuse me WHAT??? I have been a type 1, Insulin dependent diabetic now for 30 years and I have never in my life heard of anything so ridiculous! I have 2 Lantus pens left and I’ll be lucky if those last 2 weeks because they constantly jamb and don’t work. Sorry I sound like such a complainer but I am in a lot of potential trouble here. This has never happened to me before all at once and I am starting to panic. 
Thankyou so much for your sweet reply Alex, and for the generous offer of the Levemir. Im going to follow through on my appointment at this Jones Center on the 24th, even though its not even with an actual endocrinologist. Tuesday Im going to call Solostar to see if I can qualify for some help from them since we cannot afford $800 a month for their insulin. Im still just so angry that a health insurance rx plan would cover 0% of an rx for something one of their members needed to live. Anyway, again thankyou so much. Youre doctor sure does sound amazing and I would be contacting her immediately if I werent 2 hours away. You are blessed.
That’s a start! Any doctor who can get you the prescriptions you need will help. When you go, ask about prescription assistance cards. I got one for my Novalog and one for my Toujeo (from the same people who make Lantus). There are conditions to the coverage, but the gist of it is you pay a certain dollar amount based on what your copay would be. I only pay $15 for my Toujeo and I pay $75 for my Novalog. Your doctor should be able to get you these cards.
I hope everything works out for you! It’s ridiculous your insurance company won’t cover long acting insulin.
Unless this insurance company is just flat refusing to support any of your diabetes related care, then what probably happened here is another failure to communicate. It sounds as though the insurance company thinks your doctor prescribed some exotic form of insulin which only a few people in the U.S. use. That would not include Lantus or Levemir.
I would suggest blocking out an hour or two during a week-day and calling them and tediously, ever so tediously, walking the cat back to find out what someone probably miscoded as what was being prescribed versus what is actually being prescribed.
Still and all it is very strange. Do you have any speculations @acidrock23?
I wonder if they are placing a hurdle in your way and denying the medicine, to obligate your doctor to provide a “letter of medical necessity” in order to cover the meds? That seems odd, as Lantus/ Levemir are sort of the standard for treating diabetes these days but it seems like something is wrong with the picture.
Actually, I talked to Caremark almost 3 weeks ago now, and they told me they were going to contact my doctor in Houston to send a letter of “necessity” (very funny) for Lantus. I have also contacted my former doctor who really doesn’t reply to me anymore at all, or her people take forever to do so, since I’m not a paying customer. Like I said, I’ve been waiting almost 3 weeks. So my husbands HR gave me a Benefits Service Center number (everyone is always passing me off to someone else) to call which I did today). This call was nothing short of a cluster-@#$@, but I also feel like I am losing brain cells. The person at this number actually did try to help me, she kept me on the line and we called Caremark together. She gave them my SS# and then the ID # on the account. The Caremark gal got extremely snippy with me when I tried to give it to her, I think because she didn’t like talking to two people at once. Then when I gave her my new address, (we only moved her a few days ago (the Benefits Service gal did have our new address) she said she didn’t have that, so I gave her the old address which she didn’t have. I got confused and asked to speak to someone else. Her manager got on the line and was irritated with me as well. Whey did they not have my old address. We spent over a half an hour on the phone arguing with extremely arguementative people over a stupid address when I need a drug to keep me alive. They finally got around to telling me they don’t cover it. They gave me another #!!! So my doctor could call and tell them I needed this drug. I DON’T HAVE A DOCTOR YET AND MY OLD DOCTOR DOESN’T WANT TO HELP ME!!! I have heard horror stories of type 1 diabetics dropping dead because nooone will let them have their insulin but never believed it. In the man time my Lantus is going bad. I feel like I’m losing it. Why is this even happening?