A young woman’s experiences and frustrations with healthcare in America

Mira Chen
Mira Chen
Jul 30, 2017 · 4 min read

As far as healthcare is concerned, I had a terrible year.

At my annual OB-GYN appointment, the doctor recommended me to get a ‘cutting-edge’ birth control implant that can be effective for three years.

“This is currently the most effective method. The most common side effect is irregular menstrual cycles, and that should be gone in three months once your body has gotten used to the hormone. ”

Sure. Why not.

I got the implant, but started having horrible side effects, including severe breast pain, to the point that I was scared of having a breast cyst or cancer. I had never had such symptoms in my life until I got this implant.

I wanted to see if my body could get used to it so I waited three months. Nothing had improved. I expressed my distress to the doctor, and arranged an appointment to remove the implant.

When I got to the clinic, I waited for 30 mins. Then I met the doctor not in the patient room, but her own office, for a “consultation”.

Even though I repeatedly stated that I just wanted the implant to be removed, the doctor rejected my request and prescribed me a hormone medication to treat the side effects. “Give it a try at least”, she said.

I did.

My symptoms improved for a few months, but then they came back, and worse! I called the doctor’s office again, but the doctor told me that I had to make another appointment to discuss first.

At this point I suspected that this doctor would never remove the implant.

Fast forward, I moved to another city. The symptoms got even worse. I was looking for a new doctor.

I started calling every single provider on the directory asking to remove my implant. After dozens of calls, I realized that they all wanted me to have a separate consultation appointment with their respective doctors.

Under the popular fee-for-service payment model, where physicians get reimbursed by services like office visits instead of what exactly care I get, I would have to pay from $100 to $300 for each doctor’s visit out of pocket. Therefore a 5-minute “consultation” would be extremely profitable.

What hurt me was not only the bills. Even if I got approved at the consultation, I would have to wait for at least another month after the first appointment to actually get it removed because of how busy doctors are.

I could not believe the situation I was stuck in. I could not find a provider to remove something that had only brought me pain.

Healthcare shouldn’t be like this.

Though frustrated, I was not going to give up until the end of the directory.

I made another call.

“The implant is really hurting me”, I told the assistant. “Let me ask the doctor then”, she said.

After a while, she came back and told me I can directly arrange an appointment to remove the implant without a consultation appointment.

Yes!

I immediately faxed my medical records. After a month, I went to the appointment, filled out all the forms, and met the doctor.

The doctor asked me if I had any health issues, and then, “Why do you want to get it removed?”

“I was totally heathy. This implant is giving me very bad breast pain, mood swings, bad acne breakouts, menstrual cycles that lasted for months, and many other side effects.” I told him.

“You are not alone.” The doctor said, “Many people don’t like this implant. We can get it removed today.”

After that he didn’t ask me more questions, and removed the implant in 20 mins.

I was so relieved. The implant is out! No more side effects!

At the end of the appointment, I also got an HPV vaccine shot that I requested.

When I was leaving, I asked the nurse, “Should I arrange an appointment for the next dose of the vaccine?”

“No, you don’t need to make an appointment. Just call me and let me know when you come to the office”, the nurse said.

I was shocked. I’ve never experienced a clinic that doesn’t want me to make more appointments.

That was my happiest day last year. I only got the bill for a regular office visit, instead of the much more expensive bill that I got for the implantation.

After a month, I called the nurse, went to the clinic, and got the second vaccine shot within 10 minutes.

Wow.

I was curious why this doctor and his nurse are so awesome. I looked him up and found out he had been active in the fair physician treatment, patient care and socioeconomics since decades ago. He received many awards and was once the president of Texas Medical Association. He once rejected Governor Rick Perry’s invitation to be the next Texas commissioner of Health, because at that time Gov Perry stood by the insurance companies to allow them delaying claims processing for months.

I believe the doctor, the nurse, I, and many other people all have the same vision of American Healthcare:

The healthcare system should be patient centered, instead of revenue driven.

Patients should be able to freely express their concerns and their feelings should be respected by the health providers. They shouldn’t need to worry about the bills after their visits. Doctors shouldn’t prescribe more medication just because the stats from the drug company say how effective their drugs are without evaluating the side effects.

And I still have hope.

Thanks to Siegfried Hirczy, Mohd Irtefa, Eddie, Nick Vollmar, and Dhruv Rawat

Mira Chen

Written by

Mira Chen

entrepreneur • engineer • designer • foodie | software • machine learning • IoT • embedded systems

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