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Switching Doctors
Mon, 09/10/2007 - 13:17Topic: Insurance Issues
Hi everybody,
I have decided to try a different doctor from the one I have right now. My current doctor is an epileptologist on the West Coast and the one I want to change to is also an epileptologist on the East Coast.
Has anyone had any problems with changing doctors from one coast to the next? Both doctors are acknowledged by my insurance company as "participating" but I thought I ask for your thoughts.
Any insight would be great,
Thanks!
Comments
Re: Re: Switching Doctors
Submitted by Denise888 on Tue, 2007-09-11 - 16:05
Epi_help:
Wow! These are great questions! I will use your questions as an outline when I talk to my insurance company the next time. I can afford the travel and I was not worried about prescriptions or follow-ups since I am treating the East Coast doctor as a consultant. I would like to ask for recommendations on the West Coast, preferably in the Sacramento/San Francisco/Central Coast area--and a epileptologist--is this done(asking for a recommendation) on the community forum? If so, do you or anyone else have a suggestion?
Thanks much for your words...and I will consider your thoughts carefully.
Denise
Re: Switching Doctors
Submitted by Katherinea on Tue, 2008-09-30 - 16:00
I reccommend Doctor Antonia Delgado-Escueta or someone who has studied with him at the UCLA Medical Center. He is first in the JME field.
Re: Switching Doctors
Submitted by Anonymous on Tue, 2007-09-11 - 08:47
-Make sure insurance will cover the doctor visits AND what treatments they recommend. They (insurance) could insist that tests or other treatments be done within a certain geographical area or their 'network'.
-Consider what will happen if you need to be hospitalized? If the doctor is not located close to you and you need to be hospitalized, who will help you? Is there a local doctor who can treat seizures urgently for you?
-Epileptologists usually work with a team of many different professionals, including nurses, surgeons, psychologists, social workers etc. If you don't live near them, how will you see them or will you limit yourself and not have access to these professionals? Or, can you see these types of professionals locally and will the epilepsy specialist be able to work with people from another team? Fragmenting your care among different groups of providers can be very difficult. It would be very important to make sure they can communicate easily and that all of you can work together.
-Who will prescribe medicines for you? If the epileptologist does not live in your state, make sure that your pharmacy (and insurance plan) can accept prescriptions from out-of-state doctors. If not, you'll need to have someone local to write prescriptions and be responsible for this part of your care. The out-of-stae specialist may need to be more of a consultant.
-Can you afford all the travel from coast to coast? It gets expensive and you may need to stay for a period of time on one coast if detailed testing is being done. Insurance companies don't cover cost of travel or housing. Some hospitals may be able to provide discounted hotel rooms, but many don't.
Think thru these issues carefully and good luck!
Epi_help
Questions to double check -
-Make sure insurance will cover the doctor visits AND what treatments they recommend. They (insurance) could insist that tests or other treatments be done within a certain geographical area or their 'network'.
-Consider what will happen if you need to be hospitalized? If the doctor is not located close to you and you need to be hospitalized, who will help you? Is there a local doctor who can treat seizures urgently for you?
-Epileptologists usually work with a team of many different professionals, including nurses, surgeons, psychologists, social workers etc. If you don't live near them, how will you see them or will you limit yourself and not have access to these professionals? Or, can you see these types of professionals locally and will the epilepsy specialist be able to work with people from another team? Fragmenting your care among different groups of providers can be very difficult. It would be very important to make sure they can communicate easily and that all of you can work together.
-Who will prescribe medicines for you? If the epileptologist does not live in your state, make sure that your pharmacy (and insurance plan) can accept prescriptions from out-of-state doctors. If not, you'll need to have someone local to write prescriptions and be responsible for this part of your care. The out-of-stae specialist may need to be more of a consultant.
-Can you afford all the travel from coast to coast? It gets expensive and you may need to stay for a period of time on one coast if detailed testing is being done. Insurance companies don't cover cost of travel or housing. Some hospitals may be able to provide discounted hotel rooms, but many don't.
Think thru these issues carefully and good luck!
Epi_help