post-consultation #7

Hate.

Oh well.   Let’s see.   First, they specifically told me to be there 15 minutes before my 9a.m. appointment and I walk into an office full of people but the receptionist desk window is closed and there is no office staff around.   There is also a sign in sheet and no pen.

Some time after 9, they open up, put out pens, etc.   and then they start with the “oh you missed a place on this form” stuff.  No, I didn’t.   But I don’t want to rant about forms here.   Right now the deal is, if I sign all your stupid forms, that is a clear sign that I am not planning to come back.    For example (so much for not ranting) – this one had a version of the form where you check all the boxes for conditions you and your family have had.   At the end there were three lines.   Line one is your agreement to assign any insurance proceeds to the doctor.   Line two is permission to disclose your private information.  Line three says everything you have checked off is true to the best of your knowledge and there is a signature block.

So, basically, the way the form is designed, you can’t agree that what you wrote is true without granting permission for them to disclose your private information.    So, if I cared, if there was any chance I was actually going to use this guy, I would have crossed out at least part two.   I don’t care as much about part one  because there isn’t going to be any insurance and he would only get that part of the insurance he was entitled to anyway because the law is good at figuring out who owes who money.   But I shouldn’t have to grant permission to disclose my personal information on this form — that permission should be on a separate, revocable form.    They did the same stupid thing with the line of the arbitration form that they don’t need signed.   I’m sorry, but I am just enforcing that one on the grounds that if everyone in the office is too stupid to understand the point, I don’t want them cutting on me.   The point is – the form has a place at the bottom to sign and agree to be coerced by necessity to give up your rights to use the justice system in favor of arbitration.   However, there is another line part way down that says if you want the form to apply retroactively to services received before the date you signed below, you should sign there.   Obviously if this is your first time in the office and you just signed and dated the form as of that day before you have received any services, there are no services received before that time and there is absolutely no need to sign that line.   The point of that line is to confuse you into making any services they accidentally provided before they remembered to get you to sign the non-negotiable contract of adhesion to fall under the arbitration restriction, and there aren’t any, so they don’t need it.   Seriously, if you cannot understand that, you cannot operate on me.   Okay?

I hate mandatory arbitration provisions.   I like arbitration.   If they made us sign a form that said we agreed to arbitrate first, before filing suit, I would have no problem with this.   But to make health care services dependent on giving up your legal rights is just wrong. 

Um, plus the guy is a jerk.   He took one look at me and went into “anything I do will make such a big improvement in your horrible body that it’s not worth it to talk about actually going the extra mile to make you look good”.    Forget about that.

Grand total:  7 consultations, 3 absolutely eliminated, 4 maybes, of which one is the leader.   I really think I’m done.   And yet, I want to call LoMonaco’s office and see about flying to Houston…  maybe I just want to go out of town?