You would think that making an appointment to have a mammogram would be no big deal, right? Think again.
First, some background. I am a 49-year-old middle-class woman with a decent-paying job. I live the NY metro area. I have had yearly mammograms since the age of 40, not because there's any history of breast cancer in my family (thank God!) but because I have a conservative gynecologist who insists that his patients 40 and older have one every year. OK, I can deal with that.
But it's not just him. These days, you can't pick up a magazine, read a newspaper or watch TV without seeing ads for mammograms. If you're a woman, you are bombarded over and over with the same message: Mammograms save lives. OK, I'll buy into that for the sake of argument.
Today is February 26. I call the imaging lab that I've used for the past decade. I've always been able to make an appointment on a Saturday morning, no problem. It might not be this Saturday, or next Saturday, but I was able to get a Saturday morning appointment within 2-3 weeks of my call.
Not only have they pretty much done away with Saturday appointments altogther (they only have them once a month), you can't even get a friggin' MORNING appointment until April! That's right, you read that correctly. My appointment is for a Monday morning in late April.
Well, I realized that it's not the "order taker's" fault but I did make a remark that the scheduling is not fair to working gals like myself. She was very nice and asked if I would like to speak to her supervisor. I said, "Why not?"
The supervisor, too, was very pleasant. Here is what she told me, in a nutshell: Basically, very few med students want to take up radiology anymore due to numerous lawsuits against them (I was not aware of this). Therefore, due to the shortage of radiologists, many imaging centers no longer offer Saturday appointments. In addition, it's very tough to get ANY appointment for about two months or so.
This burns me up on a lot of levels. First, you read about doctor shortages like this happening in the inner city, particularly with minority women on Medicaid or with no insurance whatsoever. You read about doctor shortages in remote rural areas. You hear about doctor shortages in places like Eastern Europe, the sub-Sahara, and even "progressive" countries with socialized medicine. This is not supposed to happen in "enlightened" metro New York, however. I mean, don't people from overseas come here because we supposedly have the best medical care in the world?
Secondly, waiting two months is not a good thing. Two months can be the difference between "early diagnosis" and "point of no return" for some people. So, no, waiting is NOT a good thing.
Third, once again, we have the insurance industry raising its ugly, pointed little head. Why, all of a sudden, are there all these lawsuits? Why weren't they there 10 years ago, 5 years ago? Can we spell G-R-E-E-D?
Really, I am perplexed. If somone has answers, I am all ears.
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2 comments:
I hear you. It is ridiculous that our country is so lawsuit-happy that this can happen. I'd been going to Clifton Imaging and found toward the end of my time going there that they had long wait times for mammograms. Then my insurance started covering Montclair Radiology so I switched and found it less difficult to get appointments. I have since found their Nutley branch is even easier for some reason and the waiting room is more spacious too! Sorry to hear you have to wait till April, that is obscene.
I had a similar problem with MRNJ in Nutley where I ended up waiting even longer than 2 months! It seems that by trying to schedule an early morning appt. months in advance, just to guarantee that you get an early morning appointment, all they end up doing is "pencilling" you in. Then 1 or 2 days before the "scheduled" appointment they call you and tell you that you need to reschedule because their radiologist has changed her schedule. Then you start the scheduling process all over again. I am a black female in my early forties. Thankfully, there is no history of breast cancer in my family, however, some studies have shown that when black women get breast cancer they go very quickly. I think that I am switching facilities.
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