I went to the dermatologist’s office last night to have another abnormal mole removed.
“Is there any way we can remove a lot of these at once?” I asked him.
“The insurance company won’t pay for more than one at a time,” he said.
I thought that was bizarre. “Why?”
“It loses the deterrent effect.”
“You mean, they don’t want me actually using the insurance. They want me to die,” I said.
He just smiled and said nothing. Oy.
Six down, six to go, $50 a pop. I spend more time in his office than I do at home.
Personal preference, but anything that appears on my skin is gone. Two people that I knew and liked died of skin cancer, because it just seemed to be age spots.
Fortunately I live somewhere that a competent dermatologist costs $50 per visit for 1 or 5. Something on my head didn’t feel right and I went to a barber and had him shave my head. I had four or five moles under my hair. $50 plus $3.00 for the barber and $6.00 for 4 cab rides.
Last time that I ever saw my primary care doctor at the VA hospital, he asked what happened to my moles. I told him that I had had them removed by real dermatologists in south america.
The VA authorized one removal in the past. When I went in, the dermatologist said, “We’ll just take a small sample and test for cancer.” My reply, “Don’t bother, tomorrow I’ll be in Mexico and the whole thing will be removed.”
“The day after I will be in with the patient ombudswoman who hides in that office with no name or title on the door in the old building on the first floor and she knows that she will have to do something, because I caused her real trouble in the past.” (Shocked the hell out of me that a truly worthless representative’s voter relations go to person could respond that fast. The ombswoman called me at home that night, well after 9pm and told me of the changes that she had done. Totally acceptable to me.)
I have an appt. with a dermatologist to look at (and probably remove) a couple of moles. I don’t have insurance but one definitely needs to be removed. I think I’ll just ask how many they see that may be an issue and how much it will cost to do them all at once.
If they mention biopsy I’m tempted to tell them not to bother since I wouldn’t be able to afford any cancer treatments.
My doctor told me the expensive part is the lab work for the biopsy.
What is this insurance company that only permits one mole/precancerous/etc. to be removed during an office visit?
Is it really the insurance or is it the dr’s office policy, meant to increase revenue however little at a time? And $50 is not so little, to put it mildly!
I have a GP who demands an office visit to get a prescription for a chronic condition to be renewed, plus they called a flu shot an office visit to get the extra co-pay. By chronic I mean for going on 40 years.
Physicans are being so squeezed by big insurers that they are playing games with the patients.
Sending each sample separately would seem to increase the overhead and paperwork costs, of course….