I currently do not have an endocrinologist

This happens a lot. They just drop me because they stop taking my insurance. Sometimes I don’t even get a notification. I am disappointed with most doctors.

I am starting to worry because I know I am going to run out of refills. I can afford to buy the necessary meds out of pocket. But still I’m not sure I trust doctors anymore.

We had one endo that dropped Bluecross insurance so we had to switch. It worked out though, because we liked the next 2 endos better and had the second one for over 15 years, until he retired this year. What type of insurance do you have?

Oxford United healthcare

I haven’t heard of that one. Is it a minor player?

Um no, you haven’t heard of united healthcare Oxford? United Healthcare became the parent company of Oxford. It’s pretty well known. $226 billion in revenue , 300,000 employees. 115 million customers. I used to have GHI before that.

In checking google, Oxford and United Healthcare merged.

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Of course I have heard of United Healthcare. Just not “Oxford”. I have UHC myself. LOL!

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I’ve not yet received a communication from UHC about that. You guys are up on the very latest news!

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LOL no, not me … google! I just looked :slight_smile:

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I guess the doc didn’t like the fee structure.

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Oh okay, yeah. I don’t know the differences.
Thanks for your help. I will check back. Thank you.

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You know sometimes the doctors and insurance company play a game of “chicken”.

Insurance company threatens to drop a practice and/or practice threatens to stop accepting a particular insurance. Usually they come to an agreement in the nick of time and coverage never actually stops or only briefly is interrupted.

Last time this game of chicken happened to me, I looked into how much I would have to pay out of pocket to see my doctor, and it was circa $150 for my typical visit.

I decided that $150 I could pay for out of pocket. A large part of that decision was that the insurance would continue to pay for insulin and test strips and lab tests that the doctor prescribed. And the $150 for the appointment would be a drop in the bucket compared to the pharmacy and lab test coverage.

Now, that’s not the universal case that the patient gets to make that choice. I do realize that some practices will refuse even existing patients if their insurance coverage changes. I think that’s a horrible awful choice.

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Usually an internist can prescribe all your medications needed too. I arranged for an internist as my pcp when I didn’t have an endo. (I refused to go back to the one my group had) I did the same thing here and signed up with an internist when we moved although it turns out we have a visiting endo once a month. Call first to find out though!

If you are very well controlled, a good internist or GP is good enough. I haven’t used a endo in 30 yrs. My GP is happy to write prescriptions for me.

Good luck

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Mine won’t. She required me to see the endo.

I also tried with a GP and she said the same thing. An endocrinologist has to write the prescriptions.

Wow, I have never been told by a GP/internist that they wouldn’t write my insulin prescriptions. Changing world I guess.

Neither have I.

Hmmm, well try an internist and ask them up front if they will write a prescription for you as your insurance doesn’t have an endo available. Maybe they are more likely to help then. Even possibly better is to call your insurance and tell them the endo dropped you because he won’t take your insurance and you will die without an insulin prescription and what will they do to help with the situation?

Sometimes if there isn’t a network doctor they will okay an outside the network doctor.