Frugal Healthcare

There are many blogs today about living frugally.  Do you ever hear anyone talk about spending healthcare dollars frugally?  Not a word.

At our house we have excellent health insurance and almost never have any healthcare expense.  It worries me when that happens to people because I'm of the old school that people don't value what costs them nothing.  Perhaps I am the exception.  I cringe at all the waste I see everytime I'm in a clinic or the hospital.

How about Medicare?  Spend those Medicare dollars you say.  Not me.  I have a chronic condition that lands me in an Urgent Care Clinic about every three to four months.  I don't know what that costs but I figured there had to be a cheaper way.  I set about to come up with a plan.

Why did Medicare and my insurance company need the expense of me visiting an Urgent Care Clinic when I knew, my doctor knew, and the Urgent Care Clinic knew what the problem was.  All I needed was a prescription.

I decided to approach my doctor about allowing me to keep on hand the prescription I needed, give me a limited number of refills and cut out the expense of the Urgent Care Clinic.  He agreed.

Have you noticed how wasteful hospitals and emergency rooms in particular are with supplies?

An elderly family member was recently prescribed a back brace that was terribly expensive.  She will never wear it.  It was a waste of Medicare dollars.  The doctor should have been smarter.

No wonder healthcare expense is out of control but if you said the word frugal in the same sentence with healthcare people would go all Sarah Palin on you.  Frugal doesn't mean cutting quality, it means cutting waste.

Let's hear it for frugal healthcare dollars!

Heroic Measures

The new year had barely begun when there was a death in our family.  He was 63, weighed 360 pounds, on oxygen 24/7, could walk only a few steps.  During the night he fell in the bathroom.

The ambulance and paramedics arrived.  Seeing the gravity of the situation they inquired if his wife wanted them to use heroic measures.  They could give her little hope.  She wanted them to do everything possible to save her husband's life.

He was care-flighted to a hospital with a trauma center.  After three days all machines were disconnected and he was gone.

I've thought a lot about this situation.  She said he had signed a "Do Not Resuscitate" order but later rescinded it because he said he wasn't ready to die.  She agreed with his decision.

It's hard not to appear harsh and cold hearted about this but what on earth went wrong to get to this point.  Who failed?

No wonder healthcare cost in America is out of control.  Who paid for all this?

We cannot afford to be a medically illiterate society. Regardless of Sarah Palin's talk about death panels, there needs to be education about end of life issues.

Finding A New Doctor

When our Doctor changed his practice to concierge medicine we were left to find a new family practice/internal medicine physician.  I cannot begin to tell you how much I dislike the process of finding a new doctor.

I had had read doctors in private practice can refuse to see Medicare patients but hospitals cannot.  I was pretty burned by our experience and decided it would not be wise to choose another doctor in private practice.

The hospital in our community owns several clinics in the area.  I decided our safest bet would be to choose a doctor in one of those clinics. I don't know how these doctors are paid but I'm guessing they are paid a salary by the hospital.

Choosing a doctor in a hospital owned clinic meant we would likely be getting a different doctor from time to time as doctors entered and left hospital employment. 

It also meant chances were greater we would see a doctor of a different ethnicity than our own.  That's sometimes problematic for Bob.  He doesn't hear well and accents can be difficult.  The other thing we have to consider is humor.  Bob is a tease and humor doesn't always translate well.

Bob's hematologist is married to a doctor working in one of the hospital owned clinics.  I figured she was not likely to move as his speciality practice is well established.  She is Vietnamese.

She works great for me but was not as good a fit for Bob.  Eventually we switched him to a doctor with a geriatrics speciality.  She is from Slovenia. That situation seems to be working well.

Our community hospital also has some urgent care clinics.  One is located near us and I've used it a few times.  It's very nice to walk in and all your information already be in the computer.  All you need to do is have a seat and wait your turn.

I feel good about our decision to choose a hospital owned clinic.