Specializing In Being Sus AF
BIZARRE, IMPOSSIBLE DEMANDS, MEDICAL OFFICE, RECEPTION, USA, WASHINGTON | HEALTHY | MARCH 15, 2021
My primary care physician finds some dangerous anomalies in some routine blood work and refers me to a specialist. I call the specialist’s office to make an appointment and I run into an obstacle.
Receptionist: “Before the doctor can see you, you will need to get your records from your former visit.”
I suddenly remember that I saw this same doctor five years ago for something similar.
Me: “You don’t have the records?”
Receptionist: “We moved buildings and changed our name, so no.”
Me: “Why can’t you use the records on file from my primary physician?”
Receptionist: “We need our former records.”
Me: “And you don’t have them.”
Receptionist: “No. We moved buildings.”
Me: “…”
Receptionist: “Call this number and get your records or the doctor can’t move on with treatment.”
I am frustrated by this, as my health issue is potentially life-threatening and I just want to get started in treatment, but I hang up and call the number. The call leads me to a badly recorded message that’s just some guy saying that if I want records I have to mail twenty-five dollars and a signed note to a PO box. I hang up on that mess, call the specialist’s office back, and speak to the same receptionist.
Me: “That was a weird message asking for money. I won’t be doing that. I can get you the records of my treatment from my doctor. It was only a one-year course of [medication] five years ago. Nothing else.”
Receptionist: “Nothing else?”
Me: “One medication. That was all.”
Receptionist: “Well, you have a week before your appointment. Just get those records or the doctor can’t treat you.”
She hung up on me. Maybe this is common practice for a medical office that has changed buildings, but it seems way too shady to me. I called my PCP and got a referral to a different specialist.
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