Vaccines

@fiesty76- Good morning. My doctors also have to see me at least once a year for refills. I haven't the slightest idea if it's state laws. One of my doctors just did a phone call to refill and change a prescription. Last year she said that she had to see me once a year because she had to take my blood pressure to refill any medicine. Go figure. SHe didn't even ask what my blood pressure was when we spoke.

@fiesty76. You can do zoom on the phone. I did it with my children. I had phone consultations a couple of times with my cardiologist. I guess your doctor has his own rules, I can understand your frustration. Let's hope 2021 will bring us back to the norm.

Okay, everyone, my daughter is standing here, so I asked about the visit requirements. She is a phone triage and ER nurse for a large health system who studies the rule changes, often interprets them for her own coworkers.

The doctors are not making this up, although some may not yet understand the new rules completely. Here's the deal, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has a whole bunch of new regulations. These came out of findings that a lot of doctors were routinely renewing prescriptions for patients whom they had not actually seen or examined in years (yep - years.)

These include:
Mandatory in person visits annually. A telehealth visit counts the same as in person, except labs still need to be drawn per new regs.
Mandatory lab draws for certain medications. Cholesterol meds every 6 months, some BP meds every 3 months, other meds may have their own requirements.
To refill any medication for blood pressure, or any that may affect blood pressure, they must have a record of an in-office blood pressure check within a specific time frame. If you have had a non-illness, non-emergency visit within your system, your PCP can use that reading.

What does this mean for you? You may be required to get labs drawn for certain meds, even though it wasn't required before. An annoyance for sure, but as we all know, drugs long thought "safe" can cause problems over time. You may need to go in, at least once or twice a year for a BP check. According to my daughter, this can be just a nurse visit, or when you go for labs or a vaccine.

As with all new rules, there is going to be a HUGE learning curve for doctors, their staffs, the insurance companies and all of us. I am going to ask the Connect moderators to see if we can get Mayo to make us an explanatory video, but keep in mind that each PCP, each health system, and each insurance company will be interpreting these rules their own way!

Sue

Thank you, @sueinmn, for posting the helpful information from your daughter and for sending a request up the line for more from Mayo.

Why a Zoom counts as a more "official" method and thus creating an "office in person visit charge" than a regular telephone visit is unclear. I understand the more frequent labs and b.p. and other requirements since I take meds for b.p., cardio and cholesterol. However, my main concern is the "temp.. refill count" and for what length of time it will cover. Hospitals here are full,without enough staff and beds. Going for labs and "routine" doc visits after the holidays will probably find the situation more dangerous..especially for those of us oldies with more chronic conditions and dependent on more daily meds.

Despite the valiant and heroic efforts our docs and staff are making during this pandemic, I believe our U.S. health system is broken and that health insurance coverages are becoming out of reach for too many. While I am deeply grateful that Americans have ready access to health care, if they can afford it, it is deplorable that Medicare and the health insurance industry is dictating what level of care is available.

Thanks again, Sue for conferring with your daughter and sharing some of the new regulations.

As one who has has pretty high risks and ongoing medical care, I can tell you that I have had over 2 dozen in person medical encounters since May - imaging, labs, 2 surgeries, doctor appointments, dentist, PT... My husband has had numerous visits and 2 eye surgeries. We have felt perfectly safe given the precautions being taken.

I will continue to stress that we all need to go to necessary lab and medical appointments because this "temporary" pandemic is now approaching a year. Deferring care is beginning to show in chronic illnesses getting out of control due to delayed care.
Sue

@migizii
"In reply to @sueinmn "For MINNESOTA, here is the information about who will be vaccinated: https://mn.gov/covid19/vaccine/whos-getting-vaccinated/index.jsp..." + (show)
I thought our state adopted the federal CDC 65+ guidelines?"
You will see I have replied to to your question under the more general discussion "Vaccines" - where it seems to fit better.

Minnesota, like other states who widened or planned to widen their guidelines to those 65+ were under the impression they could get more vaccine doses from the Federal supply, but when they requested more, they were told all available doses had been distributed. That caused a lot of concern. In states that had already increased availability, some mass vaccination sites ran out of vaccine. In other places, there is now concern about being able to provide second doses on schedule.

In Minnesota, only about 85% of the vaccines that were supposed to be delivered by now have been received. Now, the Department of Health is trying to find out if they need to hold back vaccine to assure timely second doses or if they can safely distribute all they have on hand. They expect to be able to make an announcement later this week.

All of this is, of course, complicated by the change in administration this week, and that fact that a lot of the vaccine is manufactured outside the US.

I know it is HARD, but we must all continue to practice the CDC Guidelines to mask, distance, wash hands and quarantine until it is our turn.
Stay Safe!
Sue

@migizii - In case you missed the announcement, there are 12,000 vaccine doses being made available to those over 65 through community vaccine clinics. (Of course, there are a million of us who would like the shots...) Here is the link to the info: https://mn.gov/covid19/vaccine/find-vaccine/index.jsp
As of today, the appointments must be made by phone at 612-426-7230 or toll free at 833-431-2053.
Sue

Had a confirmed appt. with Mayo Jax. They told me they will reschedule as soon as they get vaccine. Does your info apply to me? I am in our State Lottery too.

The info above applies to the State of Minnesota, where @migizii and I reside. For information about your state, see this discussion: https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/how-you-can-get-information-about-covid-19-vaccine-in-your-locality/
For info about Mayo specifically, do what your clinic instructs - providers are notifying their patients as quickly as they can.

Please note that there is a severe shortage of vaccine in many areas right now, and the situation changes daily. This is to be expected with a complex rollout of a new vaccine to 300 million people in the US and billions world-wide. The supply will catch up as more vaccines are approved and manufacturing ramps up.

Sue

Thank you for the information...it is harder to be patient as I hear, occasionally, as wealthy companies (even in my town), are buying their own vaccines to administer to their employees while people without connections (due to forced covid retirement from an educational system-health related) sit and wait and wait and probably wait some more.....I’m trying