Today, 2/20/12, my husband, Joseph Stimmel, had an 8:00 a.m. appointment for MRIs for his left elbow and left shoulder at the Drew Medical facility in Altamonte Springs, FL; we arrived @ 7:30 a.m.
Joseph made these appointments on 2/10/12 with Jamie (Drew Medical) in scheduling. Joseph works in Texas and arranged his return flight to Texas on Tuesday 2/21 in order to make these appointments.
When we arrived today, the MRI was scheduled for his lower lumbar; that was the last MRI he was there for on 9/29/11. This was not a re-eval but a new Rx. The only opening for the 2nd MRI was 2:30.
At 9:00 a.m. we were asked to leave because the insurance had not yet been approved and additional information was required from Dr. Van Dyke.
• Joseph is claustrophobic and we use the Drew Medical Altamonte Springs location because they have an open MRI.
• Joseph takes medication in order to abide the procedure; which had been taken at 7:15 a.m. in order to allow time for the drug to be effective.
• We were not allowed to pay direct and submit the invoice to insurance for reimbursement ourselves.
• Drew Medical said they would phone me as soon as they received insurance authorization. The Altamonte facility is 30 minutes from home, it is necessary for me to drive my husband because he cannot drive after taking Medrol, I work and driving back and forth across town is counterproductive.
• The miscommunication, by Drew Medical, specifically Jamie in scheduling, is inexcusable and is costing us unnecessary time and money. Also, there was sufficient time for insurance verification between the scheduling of the appointment and the day of the appointment. (10 days)
My request, to the individuals at the actual MRI facility, was that once they had insurance approval, to ask scheduling to call other patients (scheduled between the 2 appts. they booked for Joe) and make necessary scheduling changes so that the two MRIs could be back to back.
I was just notified by my husband that Drew Medical failed to be able to verify insurance today and MRI’s will have to be rescheduled. Your error has cost us an entire day!
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