Medicare Coverage for Exams following Mastectomy

@smith777 - thank you for your concern and suggestion, Susan.

Actually, my current MD is in a university hospital system. I've read they are the 2nd largest employer in the state with at least 4 hospitals, 140+ locations and many specialty practices. I live in NC, which may give you a hint as to which hospital system it is. I actually think the system's size is part of the problem - impersonal and siloed. I escalated to patient relations in October and after a couple of conversations and emails, that advocate disappeared, never to be heard from again. On this and other issues I reported, her role appeared to be that of a traffic cop and to tell ME what else I should try. In fairness, she did engage the Dir. of Outpatient Oncology who promised to be my contact but has not replied to my last 2 emails since November. I learned she delegated this to the practice Administrator and he's the one who told me this was too "complicated" for him. Very sad and frustrating.

Please see my reply to @prarysky to follow for more comments about system and provider.

@smith777 - thank you for your concern and suggestion, Susan.

Actually, my current MD is in a university hospital system. I've read they are the 2nd largest employer in the state with at least 4 hospitals, 140+ locations and many specialty practices. I live in NC, which may give you a hint as to which hospital system it is. I actually think the system's size is part of the problem - impersonal and siloed. I escalated to patient relations in October and after a couple of conversations and emails, that advocate disappeared, never to be heard from again. On this and other issues I reported, her role appeared to be that of a traffic cop and to tell ME what else I should try. In fairness, she did engage the Dir. of Outpatient Oncology who promised to be my contact but has not replied to my last 2 emails since November. I learned she delegated this to the practice Administrator and he's the one who told me this was too "complicated" for him. Very sad and frustrating.

Please see my reply to @prarysky to follow for more comments about system and provider.

@justlucky
Such good advice! I am also 75. Although we'd long dreamed about moving to the wider open spaces beyond a metropolitan area, those are now fantasies. I've read of retirees moving to towns in Arizona or Colorado only to find doctors are reluctant to take on more Medicare patients in areas of high Medicare enrollees.

That is no surprise given the relatively low Medicare reimbursement rates to many doctors, especially those in primary care fields. We also have had to rely on the emergency room more than when we were younger, so now appreciate that we are close to good hospital emergency rooms.

There are many troubling issues with health care access bubbling up and already here. There is maldistribution by specialty and geography. There has been for decades but it seems worse today. There also seems to be a bottleneck in training programs, e.g., a lack of nursing programs.

In case this may be useful, here's a link to Triage Cancer. They provide all kinds of useful information and it is not just limited to cancer, though that has been a primary focus:
https://triagecancer.org

Hi

I researched this contact: On Your Side News- Investigative Reporting.

The stress of bills and a hospital not resolving the issues may be very stressful!

I can image how stressful this is for you.

I believe contacting On Your Side News may result in their possible television coverage and hopefully induce the hospital to resolve the financial matters for you.
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Contact us
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3221 South Evans Street

Greenville, NC 27834

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Address: 406 S. Marine Blvd., Jacksonville, NC 28540

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@smith777 - Thank you for your research! I'm familiar with "On Your Side" in my area, connected to the NBC affiliate station. They do very good work. I've contacted them for a couple of home-related issues. I'm on a first name basis with their producer. Your suggestion is timely. I thought about contacting them yesterday. The biggest drawback for engaging them is that it means going public, my anonymity would be gone. If this involved thousands of $, it might be worth it. For now, I'd like to keep my issue resolution within the system. But I thank you for thinking of this!