![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eve_primeOther than all the allergies, I'm in good health - nice low blood pressure, etc., - so I hardly ever see a doctor. However, my allergies seem to be pretty extreme this year in terms of respiratory complications, so I'd like to see a doctor to make sure I don't have asthma and to get some advice. I don't think I can make an appointment at the allergy clinic without a referral, though I could be wrong, and it would be worthwhile to try to talk with a doctor first, I think.
Yesterday I tried making an appointment via a new online appointment system with the woman who is my official "primary care provider," but it failed. I phoned them today, assuming it was no big deal, but was told that (a) since I haven't seen her in more than three years, I would need to have a new patient visit first, and (b) this particular woman is leaving the practice in August, so she's not taking "new" patients. Bleh. They said they could make a "new patient visit" with a different provider, but not at that site. I always want my physician to be within short driving distance, so that I could get myself there if I happened to have a fever or other dizziness or whatever, so I declined.
So I called the medical group where my previous doctor had practiced; D's still a patient there, though not with that doctor, who took an extended leave and eventually quit after a medical system trauma in his own family. We'd switched D. over to one of his colleagues fairly quickly, since kids need regular checkups, but I had procrastinated, expecting our own doctor to return, and when he didn't, they no longer had openings there, hence my switch to the other woman at another site. Today the medical group had three practitioners accepting new patients! However, I was going to have to wait until September, because the "new patient" intake is a slow process everywhere, I guess. And then when the woman on the phone learned that I'm on the Oregon Health Plan through PacificSource insurance, she said they couldn't take me at all - they only do the Oregon Health Plan through the other insurance company, the one J. works for.
At that point I gave up for the afternoon, but later I looked online and found some other practices that claim to be accepting new patients and with Oregon Health Plan through PacificSource, so I guess I'll try them someday soon.
In any case, I'm probably better off than my coworkers who still have employer-provided insurance (one has to do paid work halftime every month to get that, whereas by the end of the month I will have been paid about 1/7th-time for two months so far this year). A year or two ago, they switched from PacificSource to Kaiser Permanente for cost reasons, and it's been a scandalous nightmare.
Yesterday I tried making an appointment via a new online appointment system with the woman who is my official "primary care provider," but it failed. I phoned them today, assuming it was no big deal, but was told that (a) since I haven't seen her in more than three years, I would need to have a new patient visit first, and (b) this particular woman is leaving the practice in August, so she's not taking "new" patients. Bleh. They said they could make a "new patient visit" with a different provider, but not at that site. I always want my physician to be within short driving distance, so that I could get myself there if I happened to have a fever or other dizziness or whatever, so I declined.
So I called the medical group where my previous doctor had practiced; D's still a patient there, though not with that doctor, who took an extended leave and eventually quit after a medical system trauma in his own family. We'd switched D. over to one of his colleagues fairly quickly, since kids need regular checkups, but I had procrastinated, expecting our own doctor to return, and when he didn't, they no longer had openings there, hence my switch to the other woman at another site. Today the medical group had three practitioners accepting new patients! However, I was going to have to wait until September, because the "new patient" intake is a slow process everywhere, I guess. And then when the woman on the phone learned that I'm on the Oregon Health Plan through PacificSource insurance, she said they couldn't take me at all - they only do the Oregon Health Plan through the other insurance company, the one J. works for.
At that point I gave up for the afternoon, but later I looked online and found some other practices that claim to be accepting new patients and with Oregon Health Plan through PacificSource, so I guess I'll try them someday soon.
In any case, I'm probably better off than my coworkers who still have employer-provided insurance (one has to do paid work halftime every month to get that, whereas by the end of the month I will have been paid about 1/7th-time for two months so far this year). A year or two ago, they switched from PacificSource to Kaiser Permanente for cost reasons, and it's been a scandalous nightmare.