Dealing with Doctor's Office

Well since they never pickup phones and voicemail is ALWAYS full, I press the number at the prompt "If your a Dr. in a hospital."  I have done it like 10 times now and always get someone.  At least someone picks up the phone, not say they can help nor transfer you to the right person.

I have been documenting everything I do with this office.  I have my pulmunary and cardio appt's next week and will be back to calling them again to get things moving.   I hope things run smoother, if not I will keep documenting the lack of customer service and provide a letter with dates, names and times to my insurance, dr. fang and the office manager.   Since my only choice is Dr. Fang right now (Simon is option after July) I feel stuck.  If I had other options I would rock the boat a little more.  It helps that I can come on here and vent and know I am not alone. Melissa

Melissa,  Why would you deal with a office that treats you like this. Than when Dr Fang does your surgery it is still going to be the same. Your going home from the surgery and there is a problem. Are they going to be like this ? They were to me. Just thought I give you a heads up.

Dawn, My choice is have the surgery with Dr. Fang or not have the surgery.  I have been trying to have this surgery for 3 years and somthing keeps happening to delay it.  I really want to have it asap as I am on school break and need time to heal before going back to school in August.  If I wait I might be able to have it with Dr. Simon but I really know very little about him.   Better the devil you know than the one you don't.  I have been trying to find patients of Dr Simon's but have only found 1 so far.  I can't switch to him until Aug 1.  Dr. Fang is my only option till August. Thanks, Melissa

Since Dr. Simon is off limits to you for another month, maybe try and call his office and find out what his pre-op requirements are and start getting them done, so that by the time you insurance accepts him, you will be ready for surgery. You can look him up on this link: http://www.drscore.com/App/SearchDr/qryDocs2.cfm. He went to Harvard, so how bad could he be? It's one of the top medical schools in the entire world. I also read somewhere that he does revision surgery too, so if you have future problems, you can have him do the repairs.

Thank you, that is a great idea.  It will give me something to do while I wait for approval from insurance.  I know I will have to do his seminar, not sure what else.   Thanks, Melissa

Thank you.  Good idea on starting to work on Dr. Simon's requirements.  I am sure I will have to do a seminar at the least.  I know they have them couple of weeks and I don't want to miss the next one.  Getting Dr. Simon's pre appt stuff done will take my mind off the situation with Dr. Fang's office.   Thanks, Melissa

Glad to be of help. I would think the requirements would be cardiac, pulmonary and maybe gastro clearances, as well as a trip to the psychologist. Unless you've already gotten those done while with Fang. If you have, then maybe ask Dr. Simon's office if those clearances are acceptable, or if you need to see the doctors that he uses. And, you can call your insurance company to find out what they require. You might need to do a 6 mo. doctor supervised diet, unless you have already done so, or if they may not require it. (Then you can start the diet while under Fang's care and switch to Simon when you are allowed to).

P.S. If you want to have the surgery ASAP, you can pick up all the doctor's clearance letters and hand-carry them yourself to Dr. Simon's office, so that they will have a full package to submit to your insurance when the time comes. If you don't have the time to do this, you will have to call all the other doctor's offices and ask them to mail copies to you and then when you get them all, mail or hand carry them in one package to the doctor of your choice. (Make copies first!) Don't leave it up to the clearance doctors' staffs to mail the letters directly to your surgeon - it will make extra work for you to keep checking if the surgeon's office has received them yet. If YOU get them all sent directly to you, then you will know whose office to bug and can bug them directly! It puts YOU in control, instead of some underpaid little receptionist at some doctor's office who has 100 phone calls a day to deal with and a million things to follow up on. Just my two cents!