Your post reminded me of a conversation I had a few nights about with a Medicare rep on their consumer hotline. I had called originally to find out if they wanted to be included in a mailing to various agencies about tampering that has been done to my medical records. I thought of them because I learned early after I went on Medicare that there are some doctors will try to pad your records with conditions so they can get paid more by Medicare for taking you on as a patient. She said no, they don't investigate those sorts of things. Someone else does. In the course of our conversation, the subject of having to stay in an appointment even if it's unproductive or hostile. She said a lot of people think they have to stay, but they do not. That they are free to get up and leave the room at any time they wish, adding that hospitals and doctors' exam rooms are not prisons and medical staff has no right to treat us as though they are.