Frustrated with health care providers

I hurt my big toe playing soccer on Thursday, 10 days ago. I didn’t think anything of it much until it was hurting more and more the next day, Friday. Finally, someone at work suggested I call the nurse hotline to ask about it. So the nurse on the hotline told me that I should go get it checked out within 18 hours (because I had told her that my toenail was discolored).

I then called my doctor but it was late Friday afternoon and she wasn’t available. I think the office was about to close and she wasn’t available on Monday either. In fact, she was booked for the next 2 weeks. I then proceeded to make an appointment with another doctor in the same office until the receptionist realized that the other doctor doesn’t accept my insurance. She suggested I go to Urgent Care. So I asked her about the urgent Care that’s in the same building as the doctor’s office but o no, that urgent care is not associated with the medical grup I belong to. Urgh!

So I called my insurance company (Cigna) to find out the nearest Urgent Care to my parents’ house (since I was planning to go there after work). They gave me the name and address of an Urgent Care location. Great! I was set (or so I thought).

So I got off work early, picked up Kunu and went to my parents. We had dinners plans so I decided to go have dinner with them first since who knows when I’d get out of Urgent Care. Again, my toe was hurting more during dinner. So finally, I head out to Urgent Care. There were 3 people in the waiting room but fortunately they were together. I was filling out the form when the receptionist called me back to the counter to tell me that even though they accept Cigna, they can’t accept me because of the medical group I belong too. ARGH!!! So I head back to the car and drive back to my parents. I tried to call Cigna to find out where else I can go but they were closed. When I was close to my parents (after being on the road for 10 mins), I wasn’t satisfied or still curious about why they couldn’t accept me. So I called the Urgent Care to ask them, and they didn’t give me a good answer (not surprised). But, they did say that if I wanted to, I can pay out of pocket that night and then ask for reimbursement from the insurance company. So, I turn the car around and head back to Urgent Care and pay for the doctor visit ($75).

Once I’m in the doctor’s office, after he’s looked at my toe for about a minute, he steps out to talk to the nurse. I heard the nurse saying “she’s paying..” and I’m wondering, “Why does it matter how I’m paying?”. So, then, the nurse comes in and says the doctor wants to x-ray my toe and it’s going to be $110. What can I say? I said ok coz I’d rather know for sure what is up with my toe even though I’ve got reservations about whether or not the doctor is asking for x-ray for genuine medical reasons or to get extra charges. It was even more fishy when the nurse told me it’d be 10-15 minutes for the x-ray to develop and the doctor shows up within a few minutes to say that my toe isn’t broken. *SIGH* (Later on, I find out from my sister, who has friends in the health profession, that the doctors always order extra x-rays, etc… to get more fees).


Well, it took about a week before I could walk normally again. My toe is still purple. Not sure if it’ll gross some people out, but here’s my toe as of today (after 10 days). It doesn't hurt anymore but it sure looks like I would lose my toenail. At one point, even if my pant leg touches it, it hurt. I'm glad all that is over with now.

I know it was just a toe that was hurt but it was really frustrating to get the run around like that. I can’t imagine what it’d be like if I had a more serious injury. I’m not ignorant about the health care issues here in the US but I wanted to share my own personal experience with it. I know that many others have experienced more serious situations.