Much like the baddog story, this is another example why you should take a more active role in your health:
I've had this on-going issue that the DR's have been trying to isolate for 5-10 years now between multiple DR's and in the end it came down to insisting on being referred to an allergist, and to find that it was acid reflux.
Before then, they thought it was chronic sinusitis, asthma, and any source of other issues going on giving me all kinds of pills, and trial and error that never seems to resolve anything much less effectively treat the symptoms. I would be they had me coming and going for at least 50-65 different appointments over the years with little forward progress.
I was having issues where my allergies and sinuses were really bad, I was getting sinus infections a couple of times a year, a chronic cough that never went away and what felt like mucus in the back of my throat I could never get rid of. After putting up with this all of my life in regards to sinus and allergies and some of these issues becoming worse where I would stop breathing in my sleep and it would feel that you're being choked, in the end we found it was acid reflux that was not properly treated.
They gave me some new pill to treat what was actually the ROOT CAUSE of these various issues, and almost all of them cleared up within 2-4 weeks. I could breath again, no more sinus bullshit like I was having, the problem where I would stop breathing (because my vocal chords seize up) stopped, and obviously you feel better.
In one DR's visit with a specialist where they take the 30-45 minutes to spend with you asking questions and checking you out properly, they get the problem resolved in the first visit. If DR's actually could/would take the time with their patients on every visit, you would not need 20 different $100.00 office visits every 4-6 weeks to resolve an ongoing issues. It's this sort of ineffective healthcare treatment that is helping to balloon the cost of insurance.
The last time I was in to see my normal DR before going to the specialist I said.... why can't you guys spend enough time with your patient the one time to effectively treat them in a single visit? Why do I have to make another appointment for prescription refills, and another for this or that. Why not just get it all done in a single visit. He told me point blank, because of the way insurance and healthcare is billed, they must break it up in a certain way to make sure they get paid for everything.
If you want to fix healthcare, that right there is a big part of it.
