Friday I had an appointment with my new primary care physician. We’ve wanted to switch doctors for awhile but the one we’ve had for well over a decade had convenient hours and always accepted our insurance. Until last year when Blue Cross Blue Shield dropped her. When I called her office and spoke to her husband, the office manager, he explained it was because she wasn’t board certified but according to him that wasn’t necessary back when she started her practice. I don’t know whether or not that is true, but we chose a new primary care from a list of names but never actually saw her because Joe got a job and we switched insurance companies again.
Now we have Aetna, and while I’m pretty sure our old primary care is in their system, I felt it was a perfect excuse to leave without her knowing it’s because we’re tired of dealing with her husband. He’s technically friendly but comes off pretty gruff, particularly over the phone. I always feel like he’s trying to rush me off the phone which really sucked the last two times he screwed up and caused me insurance headaches. Those mistakes alone were enough to prompt my desire to leave, but his attitude (aka assigning blame to everyone but himself) really cemented it.
My friend had told me about how much she loved her primary care and it turns out he’s covered by our new insurance so a couple of weeks ago I scheduled an appointment. Not only is his office less than ten minutes away (opposed to 20+ since our old doctor was closer to where we used to live before we got the townhome), but the building is new and modern. Everyone there is super nice and friendly too.
I gave Dr. Nick, as I’m going to call him, a typed-up document going over my current health concerns along with a list of on-going issues, conditions I’ve been diagnosed with, conditions that have been ruled out via testing, the vitamins I take, etc. He really took it all in and put together a plan of action moving forward. This is in stark contrast to former doctor who would just keep sending me to specialists. I could tell after our first meeting that Dr. Nick not only cares about me but is very intelligent too. Everything he said made perfect sense. I really really like him and am hopeful that some of the crap I’ve been dealing with for years without answers might actually be addressed at last.
Even better? Since it was our first visit it was coded as an annual exam and I didn’t have to pay a cent. Woo!
Now I just need to get my old records from former doctor and it’s goodbye forever!