That’s another thing. My doctor, due to HIPAA, can’t leave a message on my phone. Or, at least, he couldn’t until I gave him authorization. The best he could do was say that he called and ask me to call back. I can’t imagine being able to divulge that they’d scheduled a specific procedure for you, as that would be divulging health information to anyone who has access to the messaging service/answering machine.
In Spain that’s how it’s done once you’re Above A Certain Age or in the list for other reasons (socialized medicine, you know), but the letter telling you where to get the squishabobber also has a phone number and email to contact if the time is inconvenient. You can also call the usual medical appointments number or go to the nearest health center in person to reschedule. They do the same thing for anything for which you’re In The List, but of course you do know you’re in it. For example, my mother doesn’t need to request regular appointments for Rehab, Trauma, Internal, Oto or the podologist: she’s In The List for all of them, so she only needs to call in advance if she’s got a trip coming at about the time she expects to be getting scheduled or whatever.
Why is it that I keep expecting this thread to be bigger on the inside than on the outside? 
Why don’t your return the favor?
“Why, thank you for the referral! By the way, I’ve noticed that you use HP printers. My friend sells toner, so I’ve gone ahead and scheduled an appointment for the two of you to meet. It’s Friday at 10am.”
Seriously, the whole things smells of a kickback. If you’re going to keep the appointment, at least make sure that they are in the network of your insurance provider.
Only my ophthalmologist does this. Even then they screw up and don’t schedule me correctly. My insurance only covers one exam a year, yet they try and schedule an exam 6 months after the last one.
I would switch doctors if mine became intrusive. Sorry, don’t want/need.
My doctor used to do that every time he needed to make a referral for me. As he explained if I call to try and make an appointment I need to fax over the referral letter and deal with other questions that are easier for him to answer. However if I have an appointment and call to change the time it’s a simple matter of arranging a date and time - all the other details are already in the file.
Seemed a reasonable explaination to me.
He’s my former (and much missed) doctor due to a move 
Oooooh, fiendish! I love it!
I dunno about kickbacks, but I’ve had mammograms at this hospital before so no insurance problems there.
Well, intrusive for one person is brain-saving help for another.
Seriously, I would love this service. I have enough health problems as it is, and breast cancer runs in my family. If I got a message from my regular doc saying “your mammogram is scheduled for such date and time,” I’d be delighted! One less thing to worry about. One less thing to schedule. One less thing to look up!
Of course, half the time, my brain is running around outside my skull, drinking Dr. Pepper and buying balloon animals without permission, so it’s just as well.
The thing I objected to was just getting a call saying that I’d been scheduled for this or that test. This was when I still had a phone in my bedroom. I’d get a call at 9 AM, telling me something. Since I’d gotten to bed two hours earlier, I wasn’t awake…and I had informed the doctor’s office that I shouldn’t be told anything of importance in the morning, to call me in the afternoon. Nor would I be able to make morning appointments. However, they went on calling me in the AM, and scheduling me for morning appointments. Then the doc would get pissed at me for missing appointments.
As I said, I changed doctors.
Swedish hospitals schedule pap smear appointments every couple of years for all women over a certain age. You get a time window for when to show up and you don’t have to call in to cancel the appointment. It’s sort of like being invited to a gallery opening, except you have to take your clothes off.
Not since Donna left, no. Amy’s too young to need them.