I am a diabetic of 47 years. AIC of 6.4 and I use an insulin pump.
I haven’t seen my diabetic doctor in a year. Recently I went to get my insulin presription refileld and the pharmacist siad, your Docto will not refill this prescrption because he said you are no longer his patient. What?
I called the Doctors office and they said because you haven’t been here in a year you’ll now need to be referred in by your primary care Doctor. I said, you are my primary care doctor. They said that isn’t how it works. Go Figure!
I said look I m running out of insulin and need a prescription called in. They said we can’t until your referred to us then we have to see you before we can fill a prescription.
I said, your not hearing me, I am out of insulin, you were my Doctor until you decided to drop me. Now you want me to get a referral to come back and see you and in the meantime you won’t fill my prescription for insulin.
The nurse said "Dear, this is how we do things and you’ll just have to find a referring Doctor. Go Figure
My Doctor is Dr Daulphin Paschall at the Metabolic group and I intend on raising absolute heell with this attitude, the lack of concern for the patient and no comprehension as to the seriousness of my circumstances.
Anyone else every run into this??
Caught in the middle of stinking thinking from the neck up!
Hi Jay,
Good grief what a mess. Where are you going to get the insulin? Will an emergency room help you? Or will they let you come into the office to see them today?
They absolultely refused to see me until I get a referral from another Doctor of which they already had one from previous visits. They won’t even try a find a solution nor would they simply call the Pharmacist and provide a one time prescription until they got to see me.
I called my cardiologist and asked him to refer me to Dr. Paschall and his head nurse said she would today. Now I’ll call them back tomorrow and see if they’ll see me right away or at least call in my prescription for insulin. I have enough insulin to last maybe until Monday.
My whole issue is the attitudes were disgusting, the process is totally meshed up and no one wanted to do anything about it. In the eantime a Diabetic could be denied access to insulin to live. Go Figure…Beware of the medical system that puts up barriers to treatment rather than focusing on the people.
Remember, in an emergency you call also get a vial of regular insulin like Humulin R without a prescriptionI have done this in the past. I go to Walgreen’s, Targets and tell them I need a vial of Humulin R. You of course will have to pay full price, your insurance will not usually cover it however you may still be reimburse from you Health Saving or FSA account. Only your newer fast acting insulins like Humulog, Novolog and also of course your new basal insulins like Lantus require a prescription. Insulins like Humulin R, etc do not require a prescription, in fact the Feds purposely made these insulins available without a prescription for such emergencies like this. Also some states will let you buy a syringe without a script but this has more to do with drug addicts then with diabetics.
I have experienced similar circumstances. I was in the hospital and well the whole thing was like a comedy nightmare.
The doctors in this country need a wake up call and dethroning from thier self exalted state.
I was very upset with the attitude, the head nurse said "Well Dear there is nothing I can do for you and I responded, Sweety this event will be written up and circulated to hundresds of thousands of readers that follow my blog. Her response was "Now you do just what you want I don’t really care! Go Figure
I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in the emergency room on a weekend. A few days after getting out of the hospital, I got a call from the nurse at my primary care doctor. She said that they got some strange phone calls and that they just wanted to call to tell me that I don’t have diabetes.
I explained to her that I just got out of the hospital and I was just diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. She just repeated that the doctor told her to call me to inform me that I do not have diabetes, based on my blood work from one year before that phone conversation. The nurse said that there must have been some mistake.
I hung up the phone and threw it against the wall (something that I don’t usually do). AND changed doctors. Sometimes the idea that someone should listen to a patient-- and perhaps understand a bit of the situation (like the sentence, “I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes this weekend in the ER-- it’s not a mistake or a joke” OR “I need insulin”) is missing.
Sorry for this experience. Hope that it is solved soon!
For the most part the whole american medical system is a disgrace!
I could write books and books on the problems encountered during illnesses of family members, friends, family members of friends and even strangers I have encountered in hospitals, nursing home, etc. The mistakes that are made, the incompetency of doctors and some nurses. I say some nurses because it has been my experience that most nurses know more the doctors!
The wrong diagnosis, the wrong prescriptions, the wrong treatments!
These problems know no city lines, know no state lines, know no particular hospital or doctor as I have family and friends in many states in all different financial scenarios. I have had visiting nurses sit at my kitchen and cry with tears at the screw ups from doctors. My mother was misdiagnosed for two years with heart problems, it was cancer. Too late she died in 3 months. My sister was diagnosed with stage 1 lymphoma. I brought her to Sloan Kettering for a second opinion. Well that took 5 months to get the appointment and then they told me four things, one her current doctors where always 1 step behind and in the cancer game you have to be one step ahead, two she was brought too late to them like I had a choice to bring her any sooner. Three her cancer was now stage 5 and she only had a few weeks to live. Four the pain medication she was on had a 1/2 life of 10 days and the pain specialist team at Yale had over dosed her and to stop giving to her for two reasons, one if she received anymore she would die and two she probably wasn’t really in that much pain anymore because the cancer was in her central nervous system and her brain was not receiving the pain messages.
I could go on and on about my mother, my father, my sisters, my friends, my friends’ family members. The neglect in nursing homes! Patient’s turning blue from because their oxygen tank was empty. Elderly on floors for hours crying for help! The lack of staff! The lack of caring!
I do know one thing, if you do not have people in your life that will take care of you then you will die in our wonderful American system.
American, WAKE UP, we should all be ashamed about our health care. It is the most expensive in the world and ranks number 37 in quality! That is disgraceful for the richest nation on earth! Then again we have become a greedy, selfish, all self important non caring nation. We worry more about what goes on in someone’s bedroom (“morality”) then what goes on in our schools and hospitals.
What is immoral about America is our lack of caring of our children and our sick and our elderly. Please I beg everyone please think twice before you vote for our next president! We have a broken system and our current president does not care, he is just worried about oil!!!
The power of social media and social computing tools is influencing politics, markets, businesses etc and it is just beginning. The people, indientified by affinities of interest, are connecting and forming swamrs of influence and this is just the beginning.
I love watching the dynamics and we now have the true ability to be “we the people”…
Don’t get me started (too close to bedtime and I don’t wanna get all riled up!) “That isn’t how it works” is not an acceptable answer. I am so fed up with the run around.
Is your healthplan an HMO? I enrolled in one a few years ago because I thought it would simplify things and it did not. Everyone now has a “cookbook” protocol to follow and can’t just reasonably look at a situation and solve the problem with the obvious.
hi jay sometimes the simple solution is the most elegant.
I have an endo and do the whole referral and primary care thing. I just don’t have any of my prescriptions with the endo’s office. I also see a cardiologist, and a retina specialist - same deal.
All of my scripts are written by my primary care physician. I have developed a great relationship with her, and her office, and her receptionist (the latter being most important). Since she writes all of the scripts, there’s no fuss or confusion. Since her office is run professionally and very conscientiously I never worry about a script getting bounced back from her office. The specialists and their respective offices are run so poorly I couldn’t and would never depend on them.
I make regular appts with her, to keep the insurance money flowing her way and bring donuts and candy to her office for the staff. You wouldn’t believe how effective that little trick is.
I can also appreciate the fact that doctors turn to more lucrative specialties than endocrinology. My diabetes doctor is a professional who works for a living. If I do not go in for a visit once and a while, he makes absolutely no money from me. I don’t work for free, and I don’t expect my physician to either. I also know that the longer I stay out of my doctor’s office, the less my doctor know about my current situation.
Suggestion? Get yourself a Bottle of NPH and R.Last for A couple of yrs in fridge unopened. That’s your back up Insulin pack… And I assume you have a box of syrringes? If not get those as well…( may need script for those) In my area, Wi. can buy NPH and R OTC. about $20 each.
Haven’t been to Dr. in a year? No Blod Tests either? Geech, that’s unusual… especially having D so long now, may want to be on top of the other things that may arise…
You can just wait a and go run out, then sit at the ER waiting room and wait to go super High, then pass out, let them revive you and then when you get the bill? Sue the Dr. for not taking care of you, ie refilling your Insulin…get him for malpractice. LOL…Just kidding…
But seriously?
Notify the State Dept. of Health and if insured? Let them know as well… And you can also Send that Dr. a Nice copy of your Complaint you sent to the beforementioned via Certifed Mail… and request his Attorney’s name… Just to shake him up… and maybe be even get his Staff person fired… maybe she has screwed up manytimes before and all he needs is one more to get rid of her…Or maybe It’s his Mother In Law…LOL
Some lower population states are alot more leinent on Dr.'s Misgivings and carelessness…so don’t expect much…just make it a matter of record…
and bring donuts and candy to her office for the staff. You wouldn’t believe how effective that little trick is.
Joe? Your Terrible! Bringing that kind of stuff to the girls trying to loose weight! LOL
I bring in a All Veggie Tray plus Glazed donuts…
I was uninstured and had no perscriptions for about 15 years. After a while I became an expert at getting R and L Humalin. Then the discontinued one of them and at least by then I had just gotten insurance again. But even then I was desperate for a script and some guidlines on how the new stuff would work. The local GP’s were all wanting to see me in a month. Failing to understand the immediate need. Finally after looking around I found a new endo that didnt need a refferal and didnt freek out when he heard how long it had been.
Here is the latest on my saga with the medical system.
After getting my cardiologist to refer me back to Dr Daulphin, of whom I was previously already a patient, I called and asked them to please fill my prescription. Their response:
Mr. Deragon we have to see you first and our next available appointment is June.
I said, first you dropped me as a patient, then you made me get referred back to you and all along you knew I was running out of insulin. They responded, we suggest you call your primary physician and get them to give you a prescription for insulin. I responded, can you hear me, you are my primary physician and I need insulin!
Their response, we’re sorry until we can see you we will not prescribe your insulin.
I am finding another Doctor tomorrow morning and will write a series of blog post to share this craziness and to think I was actually talking to a human, go figure
