Catching their lies...

Liars are everywhere.  Politicians, right?  Lawyers, crooks, car salesmen.  They all have a bad reputation.  You hear about others, but they are few and far between.  However, liars don't affect the medical community, right?  Oh, there are quacks, but quacks aren't the same.   RIGHT?

When you catch your health-care provider in a lie, what happens?

I'm "generally" healthy, except for bad teeth, hearing loss and COPD.  The latter two have qualified me for SSDI and Medicare.  I was nearly out of my COPD treatment, but here they seem to require that you show every 6 months or so for them to verify that you still need the treatments and/or medicine that you have.  Annoying, but "tolerable."

I needed a refill on something, and needed to go in for such a purpose.  NOW, they're trying to schedule "Lab work" -- saying they need current blood specs, blah, blah, blah.  Fine; How am I supposed to pay it?

But then they tried to schedule me for two "OTHER" tests... and they claimed that "Medicare Requires these tests."  I had never heard of them "Requiring" anything except age or disability.  However, it was indelicate to challenge on shaky information, so I went home.

I asked online search engines about Medicare test requirements.  Came back negative, but I determined that it was not enough. So, utilizing my caption phone, which helps me to compensate for my hearing loss, I called Medicare to question them.

The person from Medicare had a hard time understanding what I was asking.  I tried 3 times before I was able to make my question clear to the other person.  They thought I was asking if the tests were covered.  I was not.  I was asking if they were "REQUIRED" by Medicare.

The answer?  "Medicare does not require you to take any treatments; it is up to you."  That bears repeating, and they repeated it for me.  I have pictures of the conversation.

I was about to call the pharmacy to check on the status of the medicine when the clinic called.  I again asked, to be sure I was not in error about what they said.  The clinic, once again, claimed it was "REQUIRED BY MEDICARE."

I said, "You are wrong.  I just called them; they said no such tests are required."
They continued to insist that I was wrong.  I said, "LOOK, I just got off the phone with them.  I was told NO TESTS ARE REQUIRED.  YOU ARE LYING!"

Boy, that set 'em off, all right.

They started to claim they had been "audited" and if I am "not compliant" that Medicare can remove me from the rolls.  They may be able to remove me from their list, but not for disobeying a doctor's opinion!
THEN, they claimed that Medicare gave me "False Information."

So, we got Medicare calling the Doctor a liar; we have the doctor calling Medicare a liar.  Well, SOMEBODY is in error.

So, I checked with a lawyer.  Answer not really "plain", but more of a "Do what you feel like doing," response.

So, I took one more step.  I wrote to one of my Senators!  I explained the problem, signed my paper, faxed it to him.  NOW, when I get the response, hopefully quickly, I will take the answer in to the clinic.  If I'm wrong, I'm wrong and if that is the case, I will apologize.  If THEY are wrong and refuse to apologize, I will take my business elsewhere.

It's nice to be able to catch the liars...but it's frustrating to find it's someone you need to be able to trust.  They, apparently have violated that trust.  And they may be answering to higher-up authorities for these falsehoods.

Looks like the only Medical I'll be able to Trust is G*D....AS I SEE IT!