Today’s Topic: This has been a heavy-on-the-caregiver week because I’ve been trying to get Mom’s docs to do what they need to do and Moms’ prescriptions renewed, which should be done by the Pharmacy. Nobody on her team seems to do anything without multiple reminders. So I have not had bandwidth to write about Christianity this week.
I would like both of us to have better, more responsive doctors, so I went looking. Doctor ratings were somewhat hard to find. Google first sent me to Medicare’s site, which seems to rate docs by location and what insurance they accept, not the measures I was looking for (necessary but not sufficient). I did, down the Google results list, find this: Healthgrades compiles doctor ratings. But pretty much all docs around here rate about 3/5, with most reviewers giving them either a 1 or a 5, and opposite assessments of their availability, time with patients, etc. Not very helpful, unfortunately. Sigh.
At least medical researchers seem to be trying to study it: Medicare Beneficiaries Rate Their Medical Care: New Data From the MCBS:
Surprisingly to me, the ratings are in the 80% satisfied range, give or take. Their brief conclusion under health status: “In general, the better your health, the more likely you are to be satisfied with your doctor's performance.”
Well duh. They probably think it’s because docs are keeping their patients healthy. I think it’s more likely because if you’re relatively healthy, you have less need for an attentive doctor and so don’t notice the inattention.
Cynicism. It’s been one of those weeks.
Their ending conclusion:
The finding of a high overall level of satisfaction is consistent with the literature on health care satisfaction. Not only is there high satisfaction with care, but there are no beneficiary groups we examined that are predominantly dissatisfied.
There are some variations: people with poorer health status, those covered by Medicaid or without supplementary insurance, those with HMOs or clinics as their usual source of care, and the disabled population in general appear by these measures to have lower levels of satisfaction. We can hypothesize about the reasons for these differences. A next step would be to hold more variables constant to further explore the regularities which we have begun to describe here.
I think neither Medicare nor Medicaid pay providers enough. As a result, they take on too many patients and have too little time for each. They do not want a lot of contact, such as that necessitated for the proper healthcare of patients with poorer health or more disabilities. Thus they don’t want to put all that extra time in, can hardly afford to, and we fall through the cracks.
I am trying to shift my mindset, remembering the Serenity Prayer:
Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
The courage to change the things I can,
And the wisdom to know the difference.
I’m trying to let go of the stress over whether or not providers will get back to me today, and focus on my actions, being the good healthcare warrior despite my own memory issues sometimes. I have a tickler file and will call or patient-portal them every day until they return my messages. And use an online doctor for medications if the “real” docs continue to be unresponsive. But what a system! Maybe we should call it a missystem.
And finally as always, let’s elevate our Community Cred and repost The Needs List! From Aashirs nani (with permission) on Helping Humpday!
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morgansmom—needs help towards major car repairs and moving to a better environment. $8000 4155 3955 3945 3920 3395 3170 • Thermostat is repaired and some parts acquired for the front end work.• Current medical issues do take priority • Visit the KoFi page to see some cool artwork & donate! • PayPal: wingednag at gmail dot com.
anotherdemocrat—has a diary up: Anyone know where I can find a 2nd job? She’s in Austin and is suddenly $24000 in debt, mainly due to an HOA assessment! From the diary: “So, $24,000 is more money than I can ask even a big community like Daily Kos to donate. I have a venmo: at Becky-Helton, Cashapp: $B3ckyHelt0n, and GoFundMe, if anyone wants to help with next month’s payments but for a big total like that, I need a 2nd job. My day job is M-F from 8-5, so it would have to be evenings & weekends.” and “Skills: writing, 20+ years of customer service work, super reliable…” Kosmail, if you can help.
BMScott posted this: From a Daily Kos Guild tweet about Christopher Reeves:
“Christopher's house burned down early in February. An insurance dispute has made it difficult to access his funds for necessary items, so we're trying to keep him and his family sheltered, fed, and clothed. PLEASE help however you can.” There is a GoFundMe that currently stands at $15,360 15,385 15,585 towards a revised goal of $20,000.
jtg—needs about $7,000 6150 5760 5460 5435 5185 4935 for dental work.
• GoFundMe • KoFi • PayPal• Patreon • Amazon Pet Supplies •
Kos Katalogue 2022 is here—please Kosmail BeadLady if you have corrections or additions.
Please note also that Chef Bobby Neary, “@nuevopioneer,” passed away January 14, 2023. We will continue to post his favourite charity to honour him — please consider a donation to the Satos, the street pets of Puerto Rico! Bobby adopted his own Sato, Missilu, as well as raised funds for PR’s Satos.
I’m in for a mickle each week toward a variety of DKos members on the Needs List. I hope you’ll join me. Always glad to see the needed amounts gradually decreasing!
If helping financially isn’t the right choice for you at this time, you can still help. Tip and rec the diary so it stays visible. Share on social media: Twitter, Facebook, whatever platform you use, to bring the attention of others outside our daily readers. And offer words of encouragement to people who are struggling. It can be scary to be struggling, and it can feel lonely. Let them know we understand and are here to help.
If you have time, please visit the diaries above and leave comments for their authors. Those words of encouragement are vital!
If you don’t like fundraisers, please just move along. They are a longstanding tradition at DKos — Until we vote in enough progressives to create a much stronger social safety net! (Maybe in 2024!.)
And finally, please note: I am sole caregiver for my Mom, and all this back and forth with providers has put me behind. Plus I badly need to shop for groceries — no ice cream, quelle horreur (I know, first world problem)! — so I will likely be gone when this posts or shortly thereafter. Whilst I am out, please chat amongst yourselves, take a coffee break, share your own medical frustrations, post aminal photos, food/drink and tunes, spread the word and invite your friends, etc.! I will engage in Comments immediately upon my return. Thanks to all!