Hi kdubois

I want to desperately have phone consult. Can you give me more details on how to set it up. Which number to call and I am based out of Nashville how will my insurance work . Thanks a lot in advance.

Hi @mayoclinicseeker ... I apologize for the delay in getting back to you.

You will most likely need to see them in person first. The phone consults I've had with my Mayo doctors were follow-up after in-person visits.

To see if your medical insurance will work, you can just call them. All you need to do is tell them your insurance info and they will tell you whether or not they accept your insurance. This page shows the phone numbers for their different locations: http://www.mayoclinic.org/about-mayo-clinic/contact.

From what I have learned from speaking with Mayo employees, the fastest way to get an appointment with a specialist is to have your local physician refer you to a particular Mayo speciality. This is the part of their web site that has info for physicians who want to refer patients to them: http://www.mayoclinic.org/medical-professionals.

With that said, I called directly into a specialty department to get an appointment with my Mayo endocrinologist without a referral. (Mayo accepted me without a physician's referral and my medical insurer doesn't require a referral. All subsequent referrals in Mayo are done by my Mayo doctors referring to each other.)

Interesting. Do you consider a consult the same as an office appt. Obviously, if a physical exam is needed that wouldn't work, but if you are reviewing blood work/scans and next steps, it makes sense.

My wife was able to 'see' her Mayo specialist for follow-up, etc. using Mayo Virtual Visit once she was too incapacitated to travel. It was a fabulous tool.

I wasn't aware of the Virtual Visit. I will have to check this out. At this point, getting to Mayo isn't an issue and gives us an excuse to visit with our daughter/SIL in Minneapolis.