Periodically, due to pain, I could only walk with my hands on my knees and could not sit for any length of time. Mayo would not see me until I had had locally multiple diagnostic tests and also had failed 3 injections and a round of physical therapy. My local pain doctor referred me to a specific provider. I still had to wait for an appointment, go through back triage and pain management and their own Xray and MRI before the neurosurgeon diagnosed my problem and finally removed a very difficult cyst on my spine. That was a 3 mo process. I am a US citizen with excellent health coverage and live only 2 hours away.