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.

To be fair, I've had doctors flat out refuse to treat an actual medical diagnosis I have as well as refuse to treat symptoms of an undiagnosed condition. Both resulted in dire consequences to me. Sometimes they need to have that hard conversation with a patient.

If they refuse to treat you, it's usually because it's not within their purview and they direct you to the right specialist. Sometimes the decision of which physician treats what condition is blurry and debatable - but usually it makes sense.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, did a fired patient actually tell you this? Did you ask why?

Yes. But it’s more than 1 person probably because I am a patient advocate.The problem is that there are not many options for people in places where options are limited or alternative care is subpar. I have heard this a few times from Mayo Clinics that are outside Minnesota, particularly in Jacksonville. But it is becoming more familiar across the board.
Is this legal to do to Medicare patients? These decisions are often made by clerical staff.
It’s Drs firing patients not patients firing drs.

Way to bury the lede, OP.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can legal action be taken? What circumstances would warrant this?

Doctor here. I once had to fire a patient because he was violent toward me and staff. This was 20 years ago.

This is extreme and well warranted.
This is more about getting rid of a patient without reason. It’s happening
I can’t help but feel it comes down to money.
Low, Medicare, reimbursements, unlikely to get paid, that type of thing

My kids are on Medicaid and they've received excellent care from attentive and caring doctors. As a PP noted, either the practice is built to include those patients from the get-go, or the practice isn't, and they tell you upfront.

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.

To be fair, I've had doctors flat out refuse to treat an actual medical diagnosis I have as well as refuse to treat symptoms of an undiagnosed condition. Both resulted in dire consequences to me. Sometimes they need to have that hard conversation with a patient.

Doctors can fire patients for nonadherence with treatment, missing multiple appointments, misusing or diverting prescribed medications or violating practice agreements, which are usually signed by the patient upfront. This list doesn’t even include threatening the doctor or any of the staff or other patients of the practice or being disruptive to the medical setting in some way. Of course, the patients who were fired aren’t going to tell you the truth about any of these issues and just blame the doctors or the practice.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can legal action be taken? What circumstances would warrant this?

Doctor here. I once had to fire a patient because he was violent toward me and staff. This was 20 years ago.

This is extreme and well warranted.
This is more about getting rid of a patient without reason. It’s happening
I can’t help but feel it comes down to money.
Low, Medicare, reimbursements, unlikely to get paid, that type of thing

Disagree-doctors build their practices around accepting Medicare/medicaid/certain insurances (or not accepting them.) they aren’t going to them fire patients with that insurance for no reason! Much more likely is that the patient is a repeated no show/rude/non-compliant and doesn’t adhere to agree upon treatment plan or office procedure.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can legal action be taken? What circumstances would warrant this?

Doctor here. I once had to fire a patient because he was violent toward me and staff. This was 20 years ago.

This is extreme and well warranted.
This is more about getting rid of a patient without reason. It’s happening
I can’t help but feel it comes down to money.
Low, Medicare, reimbursements, unlikely to get paid, that type of thing

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.

Exactly. As we have learned on this forum, it seems more than one person here feels it’s totally reasonable to fall out of the sky with dozens of self identified pubmed articles demanding they be read during a GP appointment and declaring care substandard if it doesn’t happen.

Anonymous wrote:Can legal action be taken? What circumstances would warrant this?

Doctor here. I once had to fire a patient because he was violent toward me and staff. This was 20 years ago.

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.

DP. And that doesn't sound selfless, of course, but then again medical practice is just a business. That is a reasonable business practice.

If you want doctors to be just like any other workers, and for medicine to just be a job, then this is how things shake out. You can always fire them if you don't like the way they are running their businesses.

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.

Anonymous wrote:Can legal action be taken? What circumstances would warrant this?

Legal action? No. Unless you think there was some sort of illegal discrimination going on, doctors are perfectly free to drop a patient with proper notice.

There is a shortage of doctors right now for a lot of reasons. Concierge medicine is one, and various kinds of fallout from the pandemic is another.

You can blame docs for taking on large panels, but at a certain point, they can't fit everyone into the work hours anyway. It's not to make more money -- it's to try to address need.

Yes doctors can fire patients if they give them notice. The way things are now with large panel sizes (2000 plus patients), it is not feasible for a doctor to provide individualized attention (ie tons of questions on messaging and doctor’s respectful of time and other patient needs). Concierge medicine is built for this type of intensive relationship so I would consider investing in this type of model of care.

Anonymous wrote:I fired three drs for ignoring my questions, for incompetence, and for unprofessional bedside manners.

I think you missed the question.