Posted by Jakeman on January 20, 2005, at 23:54:03
I am firing my psychiatrist. Here's why.
My psychiatrist (a D.O.), basicly does medication management. We talk for about 10 or 15 minutes about what is or is not working, he writes a prescription and I leave. When I first go in I have to brief him on what I've been taking because he usually doesn't remember. Sometimes I write down a summary on paper in order to save time in the session. In the beginning I tried talking to him about underlying physical symptoms and how they may play into my depression. Or I would bring in studies trying to educate him about alternative treatments. But those discussions never went anywhere, and he always seemed in a hurry, so I gave up. Today I asked about the new insomnia medication (Lunesta) that is being introduced in the US. He had not heard of it but spent some time reading materials about it which I provided.We rarely, if ever, talked about my personal life. I had a psychotherapist for that anyway.
I got there today about 10 minutes early, and then spent the next 40 minutes in the waiting area with a bunch of other down-trodden souls. I went in to talk to the receptionist about some claims my insurance company has refused to pay. There I learned about the world of "CPT Codes". My Dr. had submitted claims under code 90805: individual psychotherapy and medical management services- 20-30 minutes, and Code 90807, same services, 45-50 minutes.
When I finally got to see him I confronted him about it, in that I had never received psychotherapy, and I never had an appointment over 30 minutes. His immediate response was that those were the codes that he used but he could refer me to another physician who just does "medication management" (Code 90862).
He said this in a nice way but I was taken aback at his readiness to immediately send me to someone else, rather than try to work things out. Then he got defensive when I said, "you make me pay for your time, but what about me when I sitting outside waiting for you?" (my employer can dock my pay for that). Then he said it was my fault I had to wait, because I had interrupted the receptionist with her duties of calling in patients. After I left and got to the pharmacy I realized he didn't write me a refill scrip for the antidepressant that I'm taking. The other stuff He was supposed to write them for 1 refill. He didn't.
There's more to this story but this is already too long. Does anybody know if I have any recourse for his inaccurate coding and submission of claims (because of this I owe about $600 out of pocket).
This topic raises the larger issue of why are there so many complaints about psychiatrists. I see it all over the internet and in books like
"Darkness Revealed" in which William Styron rebukes his pdoc "Dr. Gold." Is the psychiatric community aware of the growing perception of them being greedy and incompetent? Just some thoughts, comments appreciated.Jake
poster:Jakeman
thread:445031
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20050119/msgs/445031.html