01/26/2026
As a healthcare provider, I am frustrated and embarrassed at what our health care system has become. I had two phone conversations today that seemed unreasonable. I am very interested in your opinion and invite you to write a short comment. After all, maybe it's just me who thinks things could be different. I am going to share 2 stories...
#1. I have a patient who has been having horrible gut issues for about 3 months and recently got much worse. I discussed various tactics that may help their gut but also recommended to do some testing to rule out infection. I sent a lab order to the patient as they live about 2 hours from this clinic. They took the order to their local hospital lab and they were given supplies they needed to collect a specimen and were told to return the specimen to that location. When they got to that very same location today, with the specimen, they were refused care because they did not have an 'insurance company that could be billed' (such as Prime West, Blue Cross, Aetna, etc.). The patient reported they had money and could easily access $500-1000 up front to pay for the test, they were still refused care. The patient called and was wondering what to do. There was another lab in the area and they were going to 'give that a try'. I took it upon myself to call the hospital lab that refused the patient's care, I was sent to the 'manager that deals with that', she was familiar with the patient already. Upon further questioning she reported they could not accept a specimen from a patient who does not have insurance, my response was "the patient offered money up front, and they were refused". The hospital woman reported that the tests were very expensive and just the one test 'could run $500'. I stated again, that the patient had offered to get the cash up front for the test. She then replied that their main concern was the 'patient's in the hospital' and they can't do anything without insurance, because they have to 'write off so much money that patient's don't pay'. So my next question was what they do for patients who don't have insurance, she did admit that they do not turn away patients, then I asked why they had turned my patient away who had cash up front to offer. Exasperated, she stated, "well we can only do 2 of the 3 tests you have ordered". I asked if we could at least start with 2 out of the 3. The woman finally agreed that the 2 tests could be done and that they CAN'T accept a cash payment and they would have to 'bill the patient'. Now, couldn't this all have been avoided??
#2. I have patients from Fargo to Minneapolis. I do not draw labs in my office, instead I give patients a lab order they can take to their local lab that they are familiar with and that has their information on file. Today I received a patient's bill for their labs. I called the clinic and reported they need to sent the bill to the patient after it has been sent to insurance. They refuse to even send the bill to insurance because I do not accept the patient's insurance. So, the facility has a policy to send the bill back to the health care provider (me) because I do not take insurance. Soooo...when you go to the pharmacy and your medication is not paid for by your insurance, does your health care provider have to buy it for you? Just curious..
