This is not to say that the two businesses do not have special or unique attributes as the dealership is interested more in things like tires, oil, nuts, and bolts while the doctor's office may be busier with things like XRay machines and interfacing with pharmacies to provide services to their patients.
Yet there are numerous things in HM that are decidedly different than other businesses. Some may be motivated by things like HIPPA but did you ever noticed you can't elect to exclude HIPPA for yourself. IOW, while HIPPA has all kinds of assurances, for your security and privacy only, that you can't say "Fuck privacy and security - I don't need them". That is not an option you can claim.
Here's a random list of things that are peculiar to HM:
- People in the HM do not provide pricing information.
- There's no real way to shop for better prices on say getting an XRay
- Ever notice the HM brags about having these new-fangled electronic records? Why isn't such electronic records shared by doctors such that I don't have to constantly arrive 15 minutes beforehand to fill out the required paperwork time and time again for your electronic records that you'll never share with another sole! If HIPPA would have any use at all it would be to allow such information to be shared by people in the HM in a protected manner so we are not constantly duplicating effort with all that entails of human error?!?
- Do you know your doctor's email address? Probably not but you'd have a much better chance that the email address of your service advisor is emprinting on his card that he'll gladly hand you.
- I've been to many non-HM businesses where I schedule an appointment and I get an email with an appointment event properly attached so I can one-click add it to my calendar. With an HM? You'd be lucky to get a fax!
- Why is it you have to constantly listen to instructions about calling 911 if this is a life-threatening event. SHIT, WE KNOW THIS ALREADY!!!
- Why is it that HM hours are akin to bankers hours and trying to get a hold of your actual doctor, at any of 15 different offices, always a hassle?
- What's with this "If you do not give us 24-hour notice of a canceled we have a service fee", yet you are forced to wait in the waiting room for hours to see the doctor? Can't I charge you for being late if you're gonna charge me? BTW, try collecting. I won't pay you shit for services not rendered.
- I recently was proscribed a new and expensive medication. I was then told to get a "savings card". WTF?!? Apparently, I can sign up for a savings card for that particular medication and save some 20-70%. Why should this be the case? Why not simply offer the medication at a price with a reasonable amount of profit? Why different prices?!? Where else does this happen? When I go to the tire store and wish to purchase a tire I'm not told to go to the manufacturer's website to sign up for a savings card. Sure, occasionally there might be a sale or coupon that I could apply but this seems different when it comes to medicine.
- As I have my prescriptions delivered to me in convenient packs, I wanted to add on this new medication to all of my other medications I was getting. But the packs come out in monthly or 30 day deliveries and I was in mid-month. So the pharmacy fulfilled the prescription for 21 days instead of 30. Yet the price for 21 pills was almost 1/2 the price of 30 pills! WTF! I know math and this is weird. If the price per pill was $1 I'd expect 21 pills to be $21 and 30 pills to be $30. But 21 pills was like $15. So I asked the stupid question? Can I buy these in smaller quantities where it ends up being way cheaper for me? Of course, the answer is no. Now normally in a normal business, buying a smaller amount would cost you more because it's a special order and buying in bulk is supposed to be cheaper. But not in the healthcare industry - it's exactly bassawards!
- I have yet to call let's say and auto shop between noon and 1 Pm and get their voicemail saying "We're at lunch now, please leave a message". Nope at every small business, I patronize when I call during lunch they have somebody manning the phones. Why? Because, if I called and got that sort of "We're at lunch -> VM" I'd simply call up their competitor!
- In talking to a nurse practitioner I was told that one trick to dealing with expensive medications is that whenever you go to see a doctor ask for samples. She said they use to throw like 4 or 5 bottles as samples to help defer the cost of medication. Now if I could only go to Firestone tires and ask for a couple of "sample" tires for my Corvette...
- I called my primary care physician today to ask for a referral to a physical therapist because my left shoulder had been hurting. I called at around 1:05 Pm knowing that they don't even bother to answer their phones for lunch. Instead, I got an outgoing message that the office was closed! I listened to the message and they said they were open Monday - Friday 8 - 5 Pm yet here on a Tuesday, @ 1:05 Pm they are making like they are close. This is June 30th, 2020. There's no holiday. So I have to call their "Answering service" and I'm now in a hold queue. Apparently, they do lunch til 1:30! UGH!
- Recently (July 27th) I got bloodwork done on the advice of my endocrinologist. As my cardiologist is also interested in the results, while drawing blood, I asked for my test results to be sent to my cardiologist too. A few days later I get a letter from my primary care physician saying it's time for me to do some bloodwork. So I call the primary care doctor and say that I just got bloodwork done and asked if they can use that. They said I need to call up Quest Diagnostics to have them send it over. After being on hold with Quest for 20 minutes the lady comes on and say "Oh you want this other department, I'll transfer you" and after yet another 20 minute period on hold I speak to the next lady and she says I need to have my doctor call them and request it. I said, couldn't I just fill out the form I did the first time to send the results to my cardiologist and they said no, that HIPPA says all that paperwork needs to be done at the same time. For some fucked up reason you cannot fill out another form on a different day because that's not secure or private or some other stupid fucked up reason. So I call up my primary care physician and tell them that Quest told me to tell them to call Quest. They said it doesn't work that way and they doubt if they call up Quest that Quest will release the test results. Why is this so fucking hard to get accomplished?!? Anyway I said call them and let me know what happens, I'm not gonna pay for another blood test.
- OK so today I get a call from my primary care physician and they left a message saying they need the date that the bloodwork was done. The lady's name was Vennessa and she said her extension was 615. So I call back and dial the extension 615 and I get a ringing for like 2 minutes, nobody answers, never get sent to voice mail. I try this several times to verify that that was indeed what was happening. I mean Vennessa left her message at like 8:32 Am and I called back at 8:35 Am - 3 minutes after she left the message. She was not there. Her phone doesn't go to voice mail it just rings and rings. So I call back up and dial 0. To my surprise eventually a real live human being answers. I tell her I wish to speak with Vennessa and she transfers me. This time, however, I get her voicemail. Doesn't anybody answer their own fucking phones anymore?!? I left a simple message stating my name and saying that the blood test was on Monday. I guess we'll see what happens...
- Next, I get a call from Express Scripts - my new pharmacy. They say there's an important message and I need to call them back. HIPPA dictates that they can't tell me what's the story in a message. That would be too simple and of course, it's for your protection and all even if you don't want that protection! So I call up and the damn voice menu system can't detect that 06281960 is my birthday (gotta protect your birthday!) and after several attempts of saying "June 28th, 1960" the stupid voice recognition system finally gets it. They then proceed to tell me that they can't fulfill my request for Vitamin D3 because my insurance doesn't accept that but luckily since it's OTC, I can just buy it myself. As I've already said if you want OTC medication delivered to you when you have prescription medication also being delivered to you you have to get a script for that. Now I already have D3 vitamins but I figured that since I was renewing all my prescriptions I might as well get the D3 on the shipment. Now, why the fuck can't they just deliver this OTC D3 pills and simply charge me for them. Why the fuck is the insurance company involved at all? And why does the insurance company have the power to deny me an OTC medication?!?
