ugh.
OK, so I think I posted last time that even though my original cardiology appointment was now being covered by my insurance company, I still had to get all of these referrals and special permissions in order to go to Mass General in order to meet with the supervising cardiologist and surgeon and also to have the actual surgery (and probably to piss once I'm actually in the hospital).
Last Friday, I called the cardiologist's office to explain that now I needed a referral so that I could make my consultation appointment. The doctor was out of the office til Monday, so I called this past Friday and left a message for when the office opened, saying that I just wanted to check the status and see if there was any more information they needed from me, etc.
This, verbatim, is the message that the secretary left on my cell phone: "He can't refer you to another specialist, so it would have to come from your PCP. Once you have that, you should be able to schedule the consultation."
Ummm... why does my PCP have to refer me to a doctor for heart surgery when the CARDIOLOGIST IS THE ONE RECOMMENDING THAT I HAVE THE SURGERY IN THE FIRST PLACE? Does this make sense to anyone?
I'm totally at a loss as to how to proceed. I think what I'm going to do is call the contact person from the appeals department at my insurance company and ask for some guidance/explanation/help. She won't have anything to do with this particular thing but she definitely knew what she was talking about the couple of times I *did* speak to her. I know that she said something about it being a special type of referral, like a second opinion... if that's the case, maybe that part of the message just got lost in translation or something when I had called the cardiologist originally.
If it DOES have to come from my PCP (which would be totally stupid), I probably first have to make sure that the old doctor sent over my medical records to my new doctor, since I can't remember filing out that form (but maybe I did?). Then, the new doctor will probably also want to see records from the cardiologist -- 24 years worth. Once she has all of that information and reviews it, she'll be able to put in the referral... which will probably take a ridiculous amount of time to get processed and approved. After, I can schedule the consultation. They will probably want to do some more echos/tests in general to create a plan for what they're going to do once they have me open. Once they decide that, yes, I do need to have surgery, I believe the surgeon also has to send over a referral before I can actually schedule anything.
I'm frustrated with this whole thing and I really just do not understand why it has to be so damn complicated.]
Last Friday, I called the cardiologist's office to explain that now I needed a referral so that I could make my consultation appointment. The doctor was out of the office til Monday, so I called this past Friday and left a message for when the office opened, saying that I just wanted to check the status and see if there was any more information they needed from me, etc.
This, verbatim, is the message that the secretary left on my cell phone: "He can't refer you to another specialist, so it would have to come from your PCP. Once you have that, you should be able to schedule the consultation."
Ummm... why does my PCP have to refer me to a doctor for heart surgery when the CARDIOLOGIST IS THE ONE RECOMMENDING THAT I HAVE THE SURGERY IN THE FIRST PLACE? Does this make sense to anyone?
I'm totally at a loss as to how to proceed. I think what I'm going to do is call the contact person from the appeals department at my insurance company and ask for some guidance/explanation/help. She won't have anything to do with this particular thing but she definitely knew what she was talking about the couple of times I *did* speak to her. I know that she said something about it being a special type of referral, like a second opinion... if that's the case, maybe that part of the message just got lost in translation or something when I had called the cardiologist originally.
If it DOES have to come from my PCP (which would be totally stupid), I probably first have to make sure that the old doctor sent over my medical records to my new doctor, since I can't remember filing out that form (but maybe I did?). Then, the new doctor will probably also want to see records from the cardiologist -- 24 years worth. Once she has all of that information and reviews it, she'll be able to put in the referral... which will probably take a ridiculous amount of time to get processed and approved. After, I can schedule the consultation. They will probably want to do some more echos/tests in general to create a plan for what they're going to do once they have me open. Once they decide that, yes, I do need to have surgery, I believe the surgeon also has to send over a referral before I can actually schedule anything.
I'm frustrated with this whole thing and I really just do not understand why it has to be so damn complicated.]