Omit needless!

Every few weeks I get a bill from the medical center for the time I had piriformis syndrome in October. First it was for the same-day clinic office visit. Then it was for the use of the facilities. Then it was harassing me to pay (a billing glitch made them think I owed them over $70 for a ten-minute office visit with a NP). Now it’s for the two physical therapy visits I made afterwards.

I don’t deny that I made three separate appointments — same-day clinic, PT, and PT follow-up. But really, couldn’t this have been streamlined somehow? The follow-up was unnecessary, since my symptoms were gone by that time. And I could have cut out the same-day clinic visit altogether if I was able to go see physical therapy from the beginning. Looking at the bill, each visit cost hundreds of dollars (most of which was paid for by my insurance). So this is not trivial.

Why not make it so that patients can pick a specialist to see first (that specialist also being trained in some primary care)? And why not tell patients, “if you feel better, then you can cancel your appointment”?

And while we’re at it, let’s work on the process of bill collection. They could have asked me to pay $15 at the office, which many offices do, rather than billing me later. They can use online billing, like my credit card. But instead they send me snail mail letters that cost money and slow down the whole communication process. And they handled the billing glitch very inefficiently.

I like to think that health care providers want to help patients save money. So why aren’t they dealing with these little inefficiencies?