Doctor's orders.

is a term that is a joke...unless you are working with an insurance company.

Common sense dictates that if a doctor tells you you ought to get something taken care of as soon as you can are so-called doctor's orders.

Doctors don't have any real authority. They for the most part don't have the authority to order anybody to do anything.

Recently I had to deal with a copayment situation. The woman asked me if I was getting the procedure done on 'doctor's orders' or I self referred myself. I told her I was acting on the serious recommendation of my physician.

"Recommendation?" she asked, in that ugly tone of voice.

"He brought me to the position of attention and told me that failure to go through the procedure would result in my being sentenced to death by musketry," I said. "I would he handed a cigarette and a blindfold and be tied to a post and shot to death by a firing squad."

"Horsefeathers," she replied. I knew I had he on the defensive.

"Can the doctor have me sentenced to long term federal prison time for failure to obey? I asked.

"No," she shot back.

"A couple of years in State prison?"

"No," she snapped.

"Sixty days in the county cooler?" I asked. "How about even an overnight in the drunk tank?"

"No," she snarled.

"Get that taken care of post haste sounds like 'Doctor's orders' to me," I said.

After this I sent an email to my primary care doctor and told him about the entire conversation.

I was pleasantly surprised to get an uncharacteristic phone call back a couple of hours later from the doctor. 

His staff had been having problems with that woman for some time now and he decided enough was enough. He called her and told her  any of his patients that didn't follow his orders will be taken to an adobe wall and  be shot and the insurance company would have been billed for the six feet of rope,  ammunition, blindfold and a pack of cigarettes.

I don't see a whole lot of problems coming up in the future from the insurance company.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&

Maybe I picked a doctor with some common sense. Most doctors wouldn't give someone facing a firing squad a cigarette because it's bad for one's health.

















To find out why the blog is pink just cut and paste this: http://piccoloshash.blogspot.com/2009/12/my-feminine-side-blog-stays-pink.html NO ANIMALS WERE HARMED IN THE WRITING OF TODAY'S ESSAY