DENIED!!!! CoaguChek XS

[Freddie]

Blanche, you've been reading my mind.

I have a close friend who is a GP and he too has written a letter for me. Oh by the way - there would be NO WAY to have him has my doctor if I could change - we are just TOO personal. Anyways he's coming over tonite to help me go over all of these papers and we will be highlighting the important information.

Thanks for the encouragement and support.

 

[Blanche]

Freddie:

Three cheers for you. I believe that your friend/gp's letter should be very important.

But, if your doctor still will not approve your request, your GP/friend could write the prescriptions for the monitor, strips, and Coumadin. And, you could monitor your own anticoagulation. Al and I monitor our own anticoagulation, with our internist's blessing.

So, you have yet another possible solution to your problem. I do seee that Coaguchek in your future....heaven knows, you worked hard enough to get it!!!

Blanche

 

[Ross]

I just can't believe we have to fight these Doctors like this. Why is it so hard for them to read up on current trends and such? My own PCP is the same way. That guy wouldn't believe anything handed to him from a patient, but let a pharmaceutical rep do it and watch how things change. I got really pissed when he told me he hadn't heard of INR home testing, then said the machines aren't accurate. I surrounded him when I asked why the Cardios office used a finger stick machine in their clinic. To this day, he still will not approve. Bear in mind, this guy is head of the lab also.

 

[Jkm7]

At risk of stating the obvious, if his lab tests you, there is the financial incentive for him to say No for anyone who wants to home test. Each time I go to be tested, my insurance company pays. Added up over a year, year after year, each patient they manage represents a very tidy sum.

Seeing as I am only to be on warfarin for about 6 more weeks, that's just the way it is. If I were to be on it for life, I'd be fighting as hard as necessary to home test.

 

[Freddie]

Let me try to clear some possible misunderstandings:

I'm not sure, but there might be some independent labs in Canada, but in my case, I/we (Canadians) don't have to pay for any kind lab testing. My doctor doesn't profit from me getting lab work done in their office.

I'm, trying to get a home testing monitor for convenience and to be in charge of my own well being.....a sort of freedom one might say.

Here, when one goes to the lab you can wait 45minutes or longer - its that busy. I'm sure the lab tech's have more important tests to do than to check someones INR who is quite capable of doing their own at home.

 

[Bina]

Yes, in Canada it is different.
My doc used to have a blood draw service every Friday, covered by Medicare, until the tech quit.
We also have some blood labs which are independant and charge.
Hospital blood labs are covered under Medicare, (with a doctors requisition), but in the past I had to wait between 30 minutes and 2 hours to be tested. There was no way I was doing that for the rest of my life.

 

[johnM]

I think you are wasting your time/money and patience in trying to educate these Incompetents. Arriving at an INR is not an exact science so that the % that these nincompoops refer to are a complete nonsense - quite apart from anything else
I do hope that you manage to find some competent medical care.
It is certainly worthwhile to buy ones own machine if all else fails:

Available in Uk
http://www.coaguchek.com/resource.p...f923cb&f=UkZJTEU2Njk5NDUwMTI3NGY5MTgwYy5wZGY=