When are Doctors and Clinics going to be Held Accountable

The thread "negotiating your medical bills" has raised several questions. Why do health care providers think it's ok to raise the price on testing, visits, etc. when it is being billed to insurance. If someone were paying for it out of their pocket, it wouldn't be that high. In return, it causes us with deductables to pay higher deductables out of our pockets while the clinic keeps that extra money from the insurance company. Now they got extra money from the patient with the deductable and extra money from the insurance company.

Which then brings me to my next point. When are doctors and clinics going to be held accountable for misdiagnosis? My daughter and I have been seeing a physician at Allina Clinic for 3 1/2 years. He misdiagnosed her food allergies during that whole time--she had a cough and her skin would break out for YEARS! Anyway, he put her on several asthma medications, gave her steriod creams for her skin, then put her on acid reflux medicine because the asthma medicine didn't work. I went and saw an osteopath (one FREE visit), did the blood allergy testing, and now she's on homeopathic supplements and hasn't coughed or broke out since we eliminated her allergy foods.

We have an outstanding bill with them for $400. We paid out of our pocket over $2000 for medications and visits. I asked them to clear out the bill and we'll call it good since he didn't figure out what was wrong with her. They won't do that. I have sent complaints to the State Medical Board and will take this all the way to court if I have to.

The representative from Allina told me "if you bring your car to a mechanic and he fixes the tick and something else goes wrong with your car, it's not the mechanics fault." I told her the mechanic in this case didn't fix the tick, why should we have to pay for it? I wouldn't bring my car to a mechanic, pay $2000 and pick up the car with the same tick! At least their accountable if they can't fix it.

So, I ask again, when are doctors and clinics going to be held accountable for their actions?

Wed. Nov 7, 11:10am

This is a great question. Lets start right here. What was the Physicians name who misdiagnosed your daughters food allergy?

Wednesday, November 07, 2007, 11:48 AM

Its not the doctors who set the prices. Insurance companies have negotiated prices with different insures and clinics depending on what they are willing to negotiate. Doctors rates get higher based on malpractice lawsuits. We live in the Seattle area and Virginia Mason is a huge hospital here, they had to close down their maternity dept years ago because they couldn't afford the insurance and the overhead was so high they couldn't justify their loses. So really if your pissed off you should take a closer look at malpractice suits. There are so many cases out their that get rewarded these insane amounts that just don't deserve it. I'm not saying that people shouldn't sue but it needs to be reasonable amounts and this isn't the case.

As for your previous doctor he's a shit. He should have written off several of your charges and you should personally question him as to why he never bothered giving your daughter allergy tests. You shouldn't speak to the manager you should speak directly to him. But even so you also need to realize that doctors are not GODs, they can't diagnose everything and some things are left undiagnosed. And btw, people who don't have insurance are the ones who actually end up with the higher expenses and charges because the clinics, hospitals and doctors already have pre negotiated prices for procedures with them so the people who don't have insurance get the shitty end of the deal cause there is nothing to negotiate. Although most places you can arrange payments and some are willing to do write offs.

Good luck with your situation.

Wednesday, November 07, 2007, 11:51 AM

Bribes by United Health Care

Kickbacks between the health insurers and the entire medical industry are commonplace. United Health Care spends more on bribes (to brokers, other insurers, doctors) annually than most small countries spend on primary care.

Wednesday, November 07, 2007, 11:56 AM

I spoke directly to him and two managers. They both said that they didn't feel he did anything wrong. He also misdiagnosed my Hashimoto's disease and my celiac's disease AND told me not to worry about a bruise on my leg when i fell on Easter. I still have the bruise and have spent over $100 on massage and electrotherapy through my chiropractor's office because it was starting to calcify. And they still won't waive the bill. I figure by filing the complaints.

Anybody have advice on how to proceed with them?

Wednesday, November 07, 2007, 11:58 AM

oops, sorry, i didn't complete that last thought. i figure starting with complaints to the medical boards of MN with documentation is a good start.

Wednesday, November 07, 2007, 12:00 PM

what is his name? When doctors start seeing their names show up on the internet, they will think twice. There is really no other accountability mechanism, other than a long and expensive grievance process.

Wednesday, November 07, 2007, 12:48 PM

Well, in some cases it IS the doctor at fault.

In my case, I have allergies to some common medications, so I don't take them. Yet my physician would write me a scrip for them and hand it to me. Then I would attempt to hand it back, and say, "I can't take this antibiotic, I need to take this other kind, it's in my file." So she'd write me another scrip but not take the first one back....

I had no idea what was going on with this until a bill to my insurance was mistakenly sent to me. Every time she wrote a prescription --every time a piece of paper came off that pad! -- she charged my insurance $100. MOST of those little pieces of paper ended up crunched up in the bottom of my bag, I never filled them. She was totally SOAKING my insurance!! Needless to say, I let them know about it and I let her know in no uncertain terms that it was not okay.

Wednesday, November 07, 2007, 12:54 PM

i would like to give you the doctor's name, and i know i am protected by the Freedom of Speach act, however, my attorney hasn't cleared me to give his name via internet yet.

Wednesday, November 07, 2007, 1:24 PM

First I am sorry for what you are going through. Personally I find myself questioning why on earth you would continue seeing the same doctor who misdiagnosed you several times before and writes you prescriptions for things you can't take. I am wondering why you hadn't stopped seeing this doc? I know if I am not happy about how I am treated as a patient or my doc doesn't appreciate my input and say over my own health I'd be writing them off as my doc. But you clearly kept seeing the same doc, what's up with that?

Thursday, November 08, 2007, 1:08 AM

OP here

1:08--you've got two people commenting and you think it's me. I'm not the one who had the scripts written out that were wrong. I am the one who had the misdiagnoses. We didn't know what was going on with my daughter and myself until I took her to see an osteopath for a free consult. That's when we found out about her food allergies. At that point, we never went back to him. I made my appointment with him and found out about my auto-immune diseases. All of our correct diagnoses happened within two weeks of each other. So that's what's up with that. You clearly didn't follow along......

Thursday, November 08, 2007, 8:52 AM

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