They also will never return calls, or empty the voicemail so that I can leave messages, or give me any way of communicating with them other than sending increasingly nasty one-way bills that don't even include an office phone number (nice touch, that). I am considering marching down there in my pajamas and giving them the whatfor.

You might want to mention this to your neurologist. She might have no idea.

See above. It's impossible to even talk to her! :)

(I just saw her once, don't have ongoing appointments. But you're right, and I may at least write a letter or something.)

Oh god, my jaw surgeon's staff was this bad as well -- his office manager actually forgot to schedule my surgery when he and I first requested it, resulting in a two--month delay, so that I wound up having to have surgery the day after Xmas instead of in October as originally planned.

My primary care doc's staff can be bad, too. Her office manager once told me with a straight face that it takes "two to three weeks to have a refill approved." I replied, "you are flat-out lying. The sign above your head says refills take 24-48 hours." "Yes, Miss Cody, but that's for times when we're not busy." "But you're always busy," I said. "Exactly," she said.

I love my doc (and she's incredibly good to me and my myriad weird-ass conditions), so I put up with it, but that sort of shit drives me up the fucking wall.

I broke my ankle at 35 weeks of pregnancy. The orthopedic surgeon's office got the day and month correct, but they accidentally wrote the wrong year. My insurance wouldn't pay. If I weren't about to give birth in a cast I would of appealed. How the office insurance person could print the incorrect year in the middle of August was confusing. Mistakes happen, thankfully the bill was only 200 bucks.

I blame my insurance provider mostly. They didn't want to pay and this was the way around it.

I actually consider this to be part of whether or not the doctor is "wonderful." It's her staff, her responsibility. You should certainly apprise her of the situation.

I know. I've just been so frustrated with so many doctors' staffs that I'm starting to consider this "normal."

I did finally get in touch with the woman at the office, who seemed aware there had been insurance issues because of some tax ID change, and so she said she'd resubmit. It's just hard to feel in competant hands when EVERY time I call, the woman is chomping gum or food in my ear. Sigh.

Two days ago someone I know died and we found out that due to massive misdiagnosis and the resultant lack of proper care his life was shortened and he died in needless pain. Doctors are very low on my list of good people right now.

I'm sorry, arse_hat.

As bad as many doctors' staff may be (and I have experience of them), none have reached the depths of the Veterans Administration bureaucracy.

funnily enough, the fans of the "no public health care in the US, thanks, we're not commies" always repeat that a system run by the government would be a bureaucratic nightmare, instead of, you know, the present user-friendly system.

Thanks occhi.

matteo, as someone who has experienced how a government-run bureaucracy is run, the present "user-friendly" system is much preferable.

the present "user-friendly" system is much preferable.

I've experiened both too, and I promise you that this sweeping generalization does not always hold true. It's a long and elaborate story that I don't have the time and energy to get into right now, but my cancer (and another unrelated but concurrent condition) went undiagnosed for several YEARS due to the so-called "user friendly" system in place in the states (the time in question included time when I didn't have health insurance, as well as later when I did have insurance). It was only through the dogged determination of my then-primary care doc threatening the hospital/medical group AND my health insurance carrier with a lawsuit that he got permission to authorize the surgery I needed to eventually get a full diagnosis -- and, just as he had suspected all along, I did indeed have cancer.

Luckily it was a very non-aggressive type, but even then, it was clear from tumor size that I'd had it for several years -- years in which I was increasingly ill (I was so sick by the time I got diagnosed that I literally could no longer walk by myself), and had been desperately and dilligently trying to get an answer for my health problems that entire time.

So no, our "user friendly" system is not automatically perferable to a government bureaucracy.

matteo, as someone who has experienced how a government-run bureaucracy is run, the present "user-friendly" system is much preferable.

I'm sorry that you had such a shitty experience with the VA.

But I, personally, would kill to have access to an impersonal crappy single-payer health system. Hell, I would kill to have access to any kind of system that didn't have me worrying about medical bills when I slip on the sidewalk ice.

I actually consider this to be part of whether or not the doctor is "wonderful." It's her staff, her responsibility.

Seconding that. If the doctor's staff, her employees are fucking up and making her look bad, that affects her professional reputation and she should know about it.

People who have invested years and years and tens of thousands of dollars in their professional training don't want their former patients saying "Pretty nice, BUT . . ." They want their former patients to be giving unqualified recommendations.

Tell her about it. You'd be doing her a favor.

Oh well, don't say I didn't tell you so.

*big hugs to my family doc*

He has a fairly small practice so I can get an appointment in a day or two and his office assistant is wonderful.

arse_hat, I'm sorry for your loss.