Friday, July 31, 2009
Yesterday one of our doctors had to do the unimaginable; tell a patient she has lung cancer.
Since then, one of our front office gals has been trying to schedule a PET scan for this patient in order to determine which stage she is in. The insurance company, however, is not making that task easy to accomplish.
The entire approval hinges upon one, three-letter word: non. If the front office had listed the diagnosis as "NON small-cell carcinoma" the approval would have gone through without a hiccup. Instead it appears that our doctor may have to participate in a "peer-to-peer review" with the insurance company to discuss it.
Today, a delightful set of 87 year-old twins were in our office. (Only one needed to be seen.) The older sister (by 20 minutes), who was not being seen, whispered to me to make sure the doctor tells her sister to stop smoking. The patient even admitted to not taking her regular medication the past two days because the non-smoking medication she is taking makes her throw-up.
It didn't occur to me at the time to ask her if she was still smoking while taking the non-smoking medication because I am certain that is what was causing her to become so ill.
I am looking forward to my first four-day weekend. See ya next week!
Since then, one of our front office gals has been trying to schedule a PET scan for this patient in order to determine which stage she is in. The insurance company, however, is not making that task easy to accomplish.
The entire approval hinges upon one, three-letter word: non. If the front office had listed the diagnosis as "NON small-cell carcinoma" the approval would have gone through without a hiccup. Instead it appears that our doctor may have to participate in a "peer-to-peer review" with the insurance company to discuss it.
Today, a delightful set of 87 year-old twins were in our office. (Only one needed to be seen.) The older sister (by 20 minutes), who was not being seen, whispered to me to make sure the doctor tells her sister to stop smoking. The patient even admitted to not taking her regular medication the past two days because the non-smoking medication she is taking makes her throw-up.
It didn't occur to me at the time to ask her if she was still smoking while taking the non-smoking medication because I am certain that is what was causing her to become so ill.
I am looking forward to my first four-day weekend. See ya next week!
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