I am writing to report my experience at Entire Care in Sedona. I was referred to them with a broken hip. When I first met them I expressed my concern about understanding the coverage I had with my insurance because I was facing a lot of medical expenses and had to be very careful with my finances. They assured me that they coordinate these things all the time with the insurance companies and that they would get the information for me. Unfortunately they obtained the wrong information and represented that I had a lot more coverage than I really had. In fact I only had coverage for two appointments and ultimately saw them eleven times based on these representations. I trusted their expertise based on their assurances and was later personally stuck with a bill of almost $2,000 that was not covered by my insurance company. When I brought it to their attention, they pawned me off to other departments that had no idea what was going on, and specifically could not ascertain what was originally represented to me or be held accountable for this gross error. In all, I was transferred around to four different departments, all of which were unable to help me when the front office staff at Entire Care were the people who reported the wrong information and then refused to help me. They did not disclose their rates, and the charges ranged from $122 to $244 per one-hour visit with no explanation as to the rhyme or reason of them. As to the therapy, I was given exercises to do which I did but was given no information about what was going on with me unless I asked. I brought up a certain symptom I was having difficulty with numerous times with no feedback about what was causing it. I later learned from other medical experts what was causing it and know that these people understood the situation but did not help me with understanding it. I would have been spared a lot of time, confusion and further expense if they had bothered to educate me properly about my condition. After my discharge I made mistakes which delayed the healing process because I was not properly educated how to take care of myself and manage my recovery. This caused further complications and expenses. For anyone who is recovering from hip or knee issues, I can now make three recommendations which I learned on my own by trial and error and by the school of hard knocks:
1. Get your feet scanned and buy some quality orthotics that will help to support your posture, alignment and minimize unnecessary stress on your joints. The orthotics should not cost more than $50 or $60 per pair.
2. Have your joint area checked out by someone specializing in MLD, or manual lymph drainage if you are having chronic soreness in your joint area during your healing process. If you have blockage in your lymph system it can break down your joint area and cause further damage and more surgery.
3. Get in the pool and start swimming once you are more mobile and are past the danger point. This did more to help me get back my range of motion and address my lymphatic issues than any of the physical therapy exercises I did. Another person I know who received a hip replacement concurred that swimming turned out to be the most beneficial therapy for her.
None of these were explained or offered by the professional staff at Entire Care other than a suggestion to get a spacer inserted in one shoe. My opinion based on my personal experience is that the medical profession is there to be profitable first and that the patient and the person paying the bills has to bear the burden of making sure they get competent care, and they have to take personal responsibility for professional mistakes made on their behalf. This is a regretful story but I felt it had to be told.
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