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I'm so sorry you're going through this. I would drop that PCP in a heartbeat. I had to change PCPs twice over several years because of a series of problems with each. Now I have a PCP that I have really loved. Except... just this past week I asked for a copy of my visit notes, which I'd not done so far with her, and found that she had 3 very serious diagnoses listed that I absolutely do not have. I scheduled a telehealth appointment with her this Tuesday to find out why she did this, and to have them removed. If I'm not satisfied, well, I already researched and found another PCP to switch to.
We are consumers. We pay for all medical services, whether it's through cash, credit card, insurance, Medicare, Medicaid, etc. We should never accept, or even beg and plead for, less than adequate medical care. Just file a grievance against the doctor with your insurance company and/or state medical board, and move on. And we can support each other in doing so on this forum and others like it.
Replies to "I'm so sorry you're going through this. I would drop that PCP in a heartbeat. I..."
@cookierockwell - I agree: I sometimes think, and feel, that I'm the ONLY patient who reads what they give us as visit notes, etc. The first time I visited this doctor, they had that I was a "smoker" - NO! and you can bet this could affect my insurance rates, etc etc and so on. Not to mention other less significant 'facts' that were not true. And then they said - "Oh, that doesn't matter". Right!?
So many places, not just physicians' offices, insist you accept paperwork as is, and/or "just sign here", and yet if you (and you should!) read what they insist you "just sign", you may see that you're legally agreeing to be bound by terms that are just not accurate, true or misrepresent you.
This happens with any forms that we sign. Just try insisting that something was wrong after the fact, and then be told 'well, you signed this', and good luck with that. I must say, so far, this has not happened to me, but as an educator in business and law, amongst other subjects, I would always caution my students about this aspect of daily life.
And it hasn't changed in over twenty-plus years - in fact it's probably gotten far worse as the labor force is stretched thinner and thinner, and bottom lines are the driver over humanity and basic decency.
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@cookierockwell, I do wish filing a grievance could alleviate the problem. Unfortunately, filing a grievance with Medicare is next to impossible these days of robot voice mail and press this number and press that number and no one is available to take your call. Heaven forbid a real person would be available to take your call. And leaving messages for return calls which never happen is a waste of time. Recently I spent nearly three days trying to get through to care providers on the phone to see what to do and because I am disabled with extremely limited access to public transportation I wound up going to the ER in an ambulance! It would have been much less expensive in the long run to fix a broken communication system and actually allow patients to contact care providers but then those monetary profits via insurance might be reduced - oh, no!
If it were just one doc or clinic or hospital to file a grievance against, it might be simpler to "move on" but the cover-your-rear-and-grab-those-insurance-dollars are more desirable goals in today's medical world than treating illness.
It's a systemic problem and I feel it cannot be resolved unless we reduce the profit motive to a more humane and appropriate level.