# Make up your mind, you freaking quack doctor! **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [November 12, 2008, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/make-up-your-mind-you-freaking-quack-doctor/472377 "2008-11-12T17:21:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Brunhilda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/cdc98d/32.png) [@Brunhilda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brunhilda)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2008, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/make-up-your-mind-you-freaking-quack-doctor/472377/21 "2008-11-13T19:38:50Z")
Is there a local walk in type clinic in your area? My neighborhood has a medimerge, with various doctors who all provide care at a reasonable price and are very good at providing prescriptions. That may be an option for you in the future. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2008, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/make-up-your-mind-you-freaking-quack-doctor/472377/22 "2008-11-13T20:06:51Z")
That’s a good letter. I think your eye doctor would be interested to know what happened to make you upset enough to consider not returning to her clinic. Any doctors I’ve had dealings with were always right on board with me about prescription costs - I never got brushed off about one like you did. ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2008, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/make-up-your-mind-you-freaking-quack-doctor/472377/23 "2008-11-13T21:24:51Z")
> [@accidentalyuppie](#): > > Any doctor who prescribes a treatment that the patient can’t afford without warning them of the costs has just wasted the patient’s time as well as theirs. The patient would have been just as well off not going to the doctor in the first place and would’ve saved the cost of a doctor’s visit. > > The extraordinary cluelessness of most doctors is a continual source of amazement to me. Having had some health issues this summer, I must protest. It is not normally the doctor’s job to deal with the insurance companies. When I’ve had questions about coverage, I’ve talked to the business manager of the office. The doctor is more concerned with treating the illness. I would say it is the patient’s responsibility to speak up. ---
**Author:** ![accidentalyuppie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@accidentalyuppie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/accidentalyuppie)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2008, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/make-up-your-mind-you-freaking-quack-doctor/472377/24 "2008-11-14T01:44:59Z")
> [@Foxy40](#): > > I find this statement very interesting. > > So not only is your healthcare professional supposed to know how to diagnose and treat your ailment, he is supposed to know the ins and outs of your insurance program and financial status? > > Maybe he should follow the patient home and give the medication every four hours as well. > > I’ll tell you what I find amazing. The amount of people that have absolutely no clue what their insurance plan covers, what their copay is or what their deductible is. They look at the medical staff expectantly for all this information. Insurance is a contract between you and your insurance company. If it is a managed care program, there does exist a contract between the insurance company and the doctor but it has nothing to do with walking you through your individual benefits. > > There is nothing wrong with asking for a generic brand if possible but to expect your physician to know the cost of everything he feels necessary to prescribed is absurd and unreasonable. No, I just expect him/or her to say…“this drug is my first recommedation but there is no generic available, do you have insurance and is it any good”. It is understandable that a patient might have a lot on his mind and forget to ask about the cost of the treatment but it is less understandable that a doctor would forget to ask. I expect them to ask intelligent questions during a consultation and to not be dismissive or rude if our idea of pertinent information differs. If I have a recommendation on treatment from a friend or the internet, I expect then to tell me why they won’t give me the presciption innstead of giving me a flat no. And I expect an answer other than “I’ve never heard of that”. And when I said that the doctor should ascertain if the patient is physically and mentally able to follow the prescribed treatment I simply meant that you shouldn’t prescribe running for someone that can’t walk. And you shouldn’t have written my rather unpleasant aunt off when she didn’t follow your instructions to eat and exercise after her cancer surgery and if you did more than just kick her around for being non-compliant you might have thought of the possiblity that maybe her cancer had metasized and she might have gottne the care she deserved before she died. And I expect them to learn to use the internet instead of a xeroxed paragraph from a 30 year old text book. This last one happened to me when i was diagnosed with a rare skin conditions. i went home and downloaded 20 pages of layman oriented and very detailed information on it. Both my dermatologist and primary doctor asked me to mail them a copy but didn’t have an e-mail address they would give me. ---
**Author:** ![outlierrn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/outlierrn/32/3005_2.png) [@outlierrn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outlierrn)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2008, 9:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/make-up-your-mind-you-freaking-quack-doctor/472377/25 "2008-11-14T09:46:31Z")
You probably aren’t the kind of person who would sue your doctor for not giving you the most up to date treaments after always asking about money _before_ they decide what the treatment will be either, but that kind of thing is out their too. ---
**Author:** ![phall0106](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/phall0106/32/5934_2.png) [@phall0106](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phall0106)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2008, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/make-up-your-mind-you-freaking-quack-doctor/472377/26 "2008-11-14T15:21:47Z")
I don’t expect my doctor (or his staff) to know the ins and outs of my insurance. This is MY responsibility. What I do expect is that when I contact the doctor with concerns about my prescribed treatment, that he address those concerns and provide alternatives to the original plan, not to simply brush me off, the latter of which he did. ---
**Author:** ![outlierrn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/outlierrn/32/3005_2.png) [@outlierrn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outlierrn)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2008, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/make-up-your-mind-you-freaking-quack-doctor/472377/27 "2008-11-14T18:35:59Z")
> [@phall0106](#): > > I don’t expect my doctor (or his staff) to know the ins and outs of my insurance. This is MY responsibility. > > What I do expect is that when I contact the doctor with concerns about my prescribed treatment, that he address those concerns and provide alternatives to the original plan, not to simply brush me off, the latter of which he did. Fair to say. My posts have mostly not been directed towards you, and I do hope you’re eye is feeling better. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2008, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/make-up-your-mind-you-freaking-quack-doctor/472377/28 "2008-11-14T18:45:52Z")
> [@featherlou](#): > > I was wondering about that myself. No swab? No culture? Just assuming bacterial infection, and assuming that one eye drop is the only one that would work on an unknown bacterial infection? Something doesn’t add up to me, either. I don’t know if it’s as bad in the world of eye infections, but doctors prescribing antibiotics without confirming bacterial infections is one of the reasons we have MRSA to worry about today. If it’s bad enough for a $136 eye drop, isn’t it bad enough for a swab and culture? IME, doctors in the US tend to prescribe antibiotic drops (such as Ocuflox, which I assume is what the OP got) for just about any eye problem, whether it’s a foreign body or just general soreness. ---
**Author:** ![ManiacMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b782af/32.png) [@ManiacMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ManiacMan)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2008, 11:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/make-up-your-mind-you-freaking-quack-doctor/472377/29 "2008-11-15T11:31:58Z")
Your experience sucked, but if I were you I would get a second opinion. My eyes were also assailed by an infection and to make a loooong story short what was thought to be a “bacterial” infection turned out to be VIRAL. Do NOT fuck around with you eyesight. If you still gave pain and irritation get your ass to a Opthamologist and get a definitive diagnosis…something that should take longer than 3 minutes to complete. ---
**Author:** ![Audrey\_Levins](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/73ab20/32.png) [@Audrey\_Levins](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Audrey_Levins)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2008, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/make-up-your-mind-you-freaking-quack-doctor/472377/30 "2008-11-15T12:29:41Z")
I went to the local “Doc-in-a-box” for my first and only eye infection…the “minor emergency” place that will see you the same day without an appointment and without insurance…I don’t usually have an appointment and I have never had insurance… I paid $90 bucks for the Doc to walk in, look me in the eye, and go, “You have conjunctivitis…what they call pink eye…” I saw him for literally less than 60 seconds. The prescription he wrote me was for eye drops costing $110 bucks. Again, I don’t have insurance so I paid $200 bucks for an eye infection. I don’t know if there was a generic equivalent to what he prescribed me. It didn’t occur to me to ask. I grew up thinking that whatever the good Doctor said was the Right Thing. I think medicine would cost a lot less without medical insurance, because then the price would be REAL, not some random price usually paid by some faraway insurance company, and I think I got robbed. But hey, I caught pink-eye from my co-worker’s daughter and I should pay $200 bucks for half an ounce of antibiotic eye drops! Sucks to be me! It’s a racket and I kinda wish I was in on it. At leas then I wouldn’t feel like I got royally fucked. ---
**Author:** ![accidentalyuppie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@accidentalyuppie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/accidentalyuppie)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2008, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/make-up-your-mind-you-freaking-quack-doctor/472377/31 "2008-11-15T13:54:07Z")
> [@outlierrn](#): > > You probably aren’t the kind of person who would sue your doctor for not giving you the most up to date treaments after always asking about money _before_ they decide what the treatment will be either, but that kind of thing is out their too. I don’t expect or want my doctor to DECIDE what my treatment is going to be. I expect a transaction something like this “I have diagnosed your condition as X and there are a few things we can do”. There is a new drug out for this that I really like and it should resolve this immediately. However, if you don’t have insurance this drug will be expensive and if you do most insurance companies give it their highest copay". The symptoms can also be treated with {old drug/otc drug / wait and let it resolve itself}. This drug {has more side effects / less chance of being effective / will keep you out of work a few days longer} but this treatment is highly affordable." At which point I then say: A. I { have good insurance / have $200 bucks to spare for meds} so I will go with the new drug". Or I say B “I {would have difficulty affording that / can deal with a less effective treatment}. Let me try the cheaper route and if that doesn’t work I’ll call you again” It’s called a conversation and I’m really not sure why you seem to be having difficulty with concept. It’s like you think the 2 choices are to prescribe the expensive stuff regardless of whether the patient can afford it or prescibe the cheap stuff and risk being sued for not telling the patient about the expensive stuff. To bring this full circle, I will end with the question that begain my first post and hasn’t yet been answered **“Didja ever think of asking?”** [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/make-up-your-mind-you-freaking-quack-doctor/472377.md?page=1)