Drs firing patients

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What is the conversation like when a doctor is letting a patient go. Is it veiled as something else or is it explicitly stated?

And is Medicare a reason or not? I mean, doctors are paid less, so I can see that.

Some doctors stop taking Medicare due to low reimbursement but I haven’t known of docs to fire patients faster just because of their insurance, while keeping other patients who act the same way but who have commercial insurance.

If I’ve fired a patient it’s been notification through snail mail with 30-60 days notice that we can no longer keep them as a patient and that their medical needs will be best served elsewhere. I include a list of specialists that are taking new patients. If they call and ask (only one has done so) the receptionist has told them why (in that case it was for 4 no shows in a row)

[Anonymous]

I have had many appointments with drs where I leave knowing more about them than they do about me.
The good thing is I will do good by warning other people through online reviews and word of mouth. The bad thing is these practitioners hurt people.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have had many appointments with drs where I leave knowing more about them than they do about me.
The good thing is I will do good by warning other people through online reviews and word of mouth. The bad thing is these practitioners hurt people.

Ok but what does this have to do with the OPs question

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am hearing this is becoming an issue. It seems a Dr can refuse to see a patient if the patient is deemed annoying (by asking questions) or for no reason at all.
Until recently I have never heard of this and I have heard this multiple times. In some cases the patient is on Medicare. How can this be suddenly happening?
Is it legal and what is the driving force?

OP I am not a doctor but a healthcare professional who works with a variety of patients.

I “fire” patients all the time for non-compliance. I am not there to validate their own perspective about their health. If they don’t agree with my approach and take action to implement I’m not interested in working with them.

Stop playing and come down off that cross!

The pp is correct. Doctors are autonomous professionals any are not required to take on any and everyone unless they are working in an ER.

A lawyer doesn’t have to take or keep your case, a contractor doesn’t have to do your job. Neither does a doctor if they think you can’t work productively together.

You’re not entitled to treat a professional poorly and still demand they serve you or do business with you. Perspectives may differ but unless you can prove it is discrimination against a protected class, you are free to find another doctor.

Deciding to not follow a doctor’s advice is not “treating them poorly.” They give advice; the patient decides whether to take it or not. The doctor is not the boss or God.

I personally would not keep seeing a doctor whose advice I frequently disagreed with, but we don’t know the whole situation. I’m guessing the “medical professional” here is a chiropractor or similar.

If your attitude in this response is any indication of your posture as a patient, I wouldn’t be surprised if more than one “medical professional” had encouraged you to take your business elsewhere.

Most doctors won’t fire a pleasant patient with legitimate questions or garden variety noncompliance. It’s when someone repeatedly shows up for appointments (or doesn’t) with an antagonistic attitude (fights the diagnosis, fights the work up, fights the treatment, fights the schedule, fights the staff, fights the profession) and it becomes clear that their real agenda is conflict (either actively or passively), that they will eventually be encouraged to move on. Slots are limited and could go to another person who is more willing to accept the help being offered.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:^^and the CYA aspect is largely, if not entirely, because of patients threatening lawsuits or actually filing lawsuits. To the person who suggested we would practice better medicine if we had a few lawsuits hanging over our head, you have no idea what you’re talking about. If I suspect a patient will be quick to sue me if they get sicker, I do not keep them as a patient. If I do keep them, for some reason, you better believe I’m ordering every single test known to man, even if the test probably exposes them to unnecessary radiation or gives them worrisome false positives. Because that’s the danger of overly defensive medicine- it actually causes more health problems than it solves, but hey, at least I won’t be getting sued.

Increased cost of malpractice insurance and increased risk of litigation also cause more doctors to leave clinical medicine and worsen the access crisis.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What is the conversation like when a doctor is letting a patient go. Is it veiled as something else or is it explicitly stated?

And is Medicare a reason or not? I mean, doctors are paid less, so I can see that.

Medicare is not a reason. If a doctor does not accept a form of insurance they will tell you that up front.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have had many appointments with drs where I leave knowing more about them than they do about me.
The good thing is I will do good by warning other people through online reviews and word of mouth. The bad thing is these practitioners hurt people.

I am not arguing that doctors can't be dismissive of patients. I've certainly seen it as a nurse and have experienced it as a patient. But it sounds like you are already coming in guns blazing/ready to prove doctors wrong.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:PS: There's a difference between "asking questions" in a polite and respectful way, and asking them in a way that comes with insults, rude challenges, and an insistence to do excessive work for free when it isn't medically indicated.

Challenging a doctor is okay. They are not gods, and we are the ones who will die if they are wrong.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Doctors really only fire patients for what they believe is a liability to their malpractice insurance. But I could see how questions could be seen as threatening by some doctors.

It's broader than that. My husband's gastroenterology practice, for instance, fires patients who have their screening colonoscopies done by another practice. That's one of the most profitable things they do, so they don't want patients that go elsewhere for those.

Wow, so much for the doctor patient relationship. I guess he sees them as future billing opportunities. Kind of gross.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PS: There's a difference between "asking questions" in a polite and respectful way, and asking them in a way that comes with insults, rude challenges, and an insistence to do excessive work for free when it isn't medically indicated.

Challenging a doctor is okay. They are not gods, and we are the ones who will die if they are wrong.

Nobody said it wasn’t okay. What isn’t okay is setting this up like some kind of duel at high noon before you’ve even walked through the door.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PS: There's a difference between "asking questions" in a polite and respectful way, and asking them in a way that comes with insults, rude challenges, and an insistence to do excessive work for free when it isn't medically indicated.

Challenging a doctor is okay. They are not gods, and we are the ones who will die if they are wrong.

Of course it’s ok, as in it’s legal and it’s within your right. As you say, it’s your body, and you can challenge the doctor every step of the way as they try to help your body. But that’s exhausting for your doctor to be antagonized at literally every turn and while you might think, “who cares?”, your doctor is going to dismiss you from the practice or, as PP said, start ordering a zillion tests and say “take your pick, do any of these that you’d like” even though that’s against their better medical judgment. If you don’t trust their medical judgment, why not just move on to someone else??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Doctors really only fire patients for what they believe is a liability to their malpractice insurance. But I could see how questions could be seen as threatening by some doctors.

It's broader than that. My husband's gastroenterology practice, for instance, fires patients who have their screening colonoscopies done by another practice. That's one of the most profitable things they do, so they don't want patients that go elsewhere for those.

Wow, so much for the doctor patient relationship. I guess he sees them as future billing opportunities. Kind of gross.

Or, doesn’t want to accept as gospel another doctors procedure results. Kind of like how if you show up to an ortho appt with x ray results on a CD, they often repeat them anyways to get their own. Liability issue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Doctors really only fire patients for what they believe is a liability to their malpractice insurance. But I could see how questions could be seen as threatening by some doctors.

It's broader than that. My husband's gastroenterology practice, for instance, fires patients who have their screening colonoscopies done by another practice. That's one of the most profitable things they do, so they don't want patients that go elsewhere for those.

Wow, so much for the doctor patient relationship. I guess he sees them as future billing opportunities. Kind of gross.

It’s a business, isn’t it? If the doctor patient relationship was so special and sacred why would you even be going to a different doctor for your colonoscopy? Oh, because it was more convenient or less expensive? But what about the special doctor patient relationship you have with your gastro???

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PS: There's a difference between "asking questions" in a polite and respectful way, and asking them in a way that comes with insults, rude challenges, and an insistence to do excessive work for free when it isn't medically indicated.

Challenging a doctor is okay. They are not gods, and we are the ones who will die if they are wrong.

Nobody said it wasn’t okay. What isn’t okay is setting this up like some kind of duel at high noon before you’ve even walked through the door.

Exactly.

[Anonymous]

Not the OPs question, but it baffles me that people go into a doctors office for a first visit with the mind frame that the doctor is going to try to harm them. Do you also meet with your child’s teacher with the mind frame “this woman is going to try to make my child hate school unless I beat her into submission during our first meeting”.

As I typed that I realized that yes, some people actually do do this I think. What an exhausting way to live.