Comcast - Big Company, Stupid Rules

I live in an area that is considered “rural”.  It isn’t by comparison to lots of areas, but large corporations use that term for service designations.  That way they can deny certain types of service.  Over many years, I have gotten somewhat used to it.  One disadvantage is that there is no way to threaten to leave a certain provider, because there is no other business that does the same thing in the area. 

Case in point:  We only have one cable provider.  Because I have been dealing with the same issue for the last two years without resolution, I will even use their name.  COMCAST has decided that they can only send my electronic bills to a comcast.net address.  I have been using one of those free provider addresses since before my children were born.  They are now getting ready to graduate from high school.  Comcast used to send the bills to that address.  Then I made the mistake of moving my office.  Don’t ever do that.

Now they send the bill to (drlasermed) @comcast.net.  I told the nice man that I talked to forever last Friday that I don’t have a comcast.net address.  He said that I did.  I told him I have been using the other one for about 20 years, I get all my mail there, and I don’t understand why I can’t get his bill there.  He says it’s a “security issue”.  They won’t send bills to anything but a comcast.net address.  It’s funny, because I finally got the office bill to come to the other address. 

I can’t even pay the home bill on the internet.  Comcast billing (or Xfinity to be exact) won’t accept my account for anything other than my office bill.  It won’t accept my home account payment.  If I want to pay over the phone, it will cost an extra $5.00. 

I finally gave up.  I had argued with several different people.  I did get the bill paid.  But they can’t fix the billing issue.  So, [insert shudder here] they are going to kill a tree every month and send me the bill in the mail.  I will kill a tree [insert another shudder] and send them a check in the mail back.  I’m not paying $5 to pay the bill over the phone [until postage goes up that much]. 

Why can’t business be reasonable?  What is so unsecure about sending an e-bill to yahoo or gmail or hotmail or any other internet address?  If you work for Comcast or know the answer, please let me know. 

Finding the Silver Lining Inside the Cloud

This time of year is time for many of us to do taxes.  It is not my favorite thing to do.  Fortunately, I am somewhat obsessive about keeping track regularly on my computer of expenditures. 

I print out the year from my check book and cash expenditures.  Check.

I print out the year from my office receipts.  Check.

I start looking for all the other paperwork.  Not so check.

This is where I have to depend on other people.  The members of my family who swear that they have given me whatever paper it is that I am currently looking for (the spousal division).  Or look at me with that blank stare that tells me that they have no idea what I am talking about (the high school division). 

I spent 4 days last week looking for a 1099 that my husband swore he had given me.  I cleaned the entire surface of my desk.  That’s the silver lining.  I didn’t find it.  I asked him to look for it at home.  He found it in less than 5 minutes.

Yes, he is still alive.  No, you may not inquire about my blood pressure. 

Women’s Health Care Coverage

The debate has started again about what services should and should not be covered by health insurance.  Religious organizations feel that they should be able to not cover birth control.  If they don’t believe in it as a religious policy, they should not pay for it as part of their insurance policy.

I thought we had finally finished fighting this battle.  Sigh.  Here we go again.  I have had to deal with insurance companies (and parents sometimes) about this for years.  People – this is not the 1950s. 

1.     The choice of whether or not to have children belongs with the woman who is having the children.  It does not belong with anyone else.  As a physician, I can only assist in this decision. 

2.     The choice of birth control method also belongs with a woman.  Her partner may or may not be involved in this decision.  My job is to educate her and assist in this decision.

3.     Birth control is not always used to prevent pregnancy.  We use birth control pills to control bleeding, keep cycles regular, assist with acne control, aid in controlling cramps, help control endometriosis, and many other things.  We use IUDs, patches and other birth control methods for some of the same issues.  Some of the women using these methods aren’t even sexually active.  If the insurance company decides not to cover “birth control”, they won’t cover the medications for any other reason. 

4.     Many of the “covered lives” (shudder at that term) may not be of the same faith as the organization that they work for.  Should they have to live by the same rules?

It is interesting to me that most of the people who are making these arguments are not the ones who are going to have to raise the babies.  Once the babies are born, they aren’t going to have the responsibility for them forever.  It’s only in the abstract that they talk about “the pregnancy”. 

Let’s give them 5 babies, minimum wage, no welfare, no medical assistance, etc, and see how they do!

Refilling Other Doctor’s Prescriptions

A Physician’s Dilemma

I sometimes have patients ask me if I will refill a prescription that was written by another doctor.  This is a really difficult thing for any doctor to do.  Some doctors want to see the prescription first.  Most will just flat out refuse.

Here’s why. 

Often, the medication is something I am not familiar with.  I had one patient look at me in amazement and exclaim, “But you went to medical school, didn’t you?” Yes, but that was back in the stone ages.  A lot of today’s medicines weren’t available then.  That goes for medications in and out of my specialty.  I have tried to keep up with those in my specialty.  I have not been able to keep up with those out of my specialty.

Not only do I not know how to spell the medication, I don’t know what it is used for (indications), whether or not it will interact with any medication I might be giving you, what the doses are, when you shouldn’t take it (contraindications), what the side effects are or anything else about the medication.  I admit there are fancy computer gadgets that let me look that stuff up.  However, there is not enough time in an average appointment to look up every medication.

The other issue is WHY ARE YOU OUT OF THE MEDICATION?  Are you late to see your other doctor?  When did you have your last screening testing done?  Do you need an appointment to get your cholesterol or sugar or kidneys checked? How am I supposed to know if you are taking the right amount?   What if I refill it and it isn’t the right amount?  Your condition could get worse or you could DIE.  I would feel pretty danged awful about that. 

Nope, I’m not going to take the risk.  I will call the doctor who wrote the prescription and see if you can get an appointment.

And don’t even think about calling after hours or on the weekend.  I’ll need extra blood pressure medication for that!