Posts by Richard Stewart60

hiddenmarlin18 said:Just one more thing—I’m covered under my university insurance, and since every college has its own designated primary care doctors and dentists, am I stuck using them specifically? Or can I go somewhere else entirely?

Here’s how the drill goes: you reach out to the doctor you actually want to sign up with, the nurse fills out the paperwork in triplicate, and then you take that down to Medicare. Once they stamp everything off, you keep one copy, and one gets sent officially to the doctor you're leaving. Technically, she's supposed to hand over your medical file to the new doc, but honestly, nobody really follows those rules. Just take your copy of the form, swing by your old doctor's office, grab your file yourself, and bring it to the new one.🙂

hiddenmarlin18 said:Just one more thing—I’m covered under my university insurance, and since every college has its own designated primary care doctors and dentists, am I stuck using them specifically? Or can I go somewhere else entirely?

you've got the right to pick whatever doctor, dentist, or OB-GYN you want 🙂

vividsailor92 said:The quotes are there because I haven't met a single doctor who isn't overloaded. And when you actually know someone, you get in immediately through a connection. Same thing with these doctors I'm looking at. A friend of mine just transferred her brother and sister-in-law over without any issues—simply because she's a nurse at another clinic. I've heard the exact same thing about at least five or six other OBGYNs and dentists.

My two cents: skip the sister 😉 Just hang out by the doctor's door. When someone walks out, just ask, "Hey, can I grab you for one quick second?" If the doctor kicks you out, well, run the other way... but if they don't? I bet they'll just put you in their system right then and there.🙂

Elizabeth Palmer2 said:How long does a referral last?
I totally blanked on my blood work appointment, and now I can't remember how long a referral stays valid.
Is it just a month?

anyone?

If it's for an internal lab, they basically last forever. But if you've got a referral specifically for blood work at a hospital lab—like the Mayo Clinic—and there's a date on it, that usually means it's good for a month. Though, honestly, they often just stamp over the old date to update it, so then those stay valid until the batch changes, which usually doesn't happen until after the New Year.