By Amy Lynd Zingone ?Reader”s views
I have some concerns about the Medi-Cal program. My mother is on Medi-Cal, and she brought it to my attention recently that the medical clinic where she goes makes the patients on Medi-Cal schedule multiple appointments for things that can be taken care of in one appointment. For instance, at a dental appointment, the first visit they will take x-rays, then make you schedule another appointment to look at the x-rays and tell you what needs to be done. Then when you get work done, they do one thing at a time; sometimes scheduling multiple appointments for procedures that should be done in one or two visits. I had to drive my mother to six different appointments to get one root canal done. She was told by a friend, who works at one of the clinics, that the reason they do one thing at a time and make you come back multiple times for the same procedure, that could have been done in one visit, is Medi-Cal pays per appointment, not procedure and that”s how the clinic gets more money out of them.
When I heard that, I was appalled! Isn”t Medi-Cal funded by tax dollars? To me, this is straight up abuse of the system. No wonder this state is in a budget crisis. The people who work hard and pay their taxes are the ones paying for this.
Also, I truly believe doctors are grossly overpaid for the few seconds they take to deal with patients. This is not the only medical clinic that is abusing the system in this way. It is going on at most clinics that take Medi-Cal. My sister, who lives in a different county, 200 miles away, took my 9- year-old nephew, who is on Medi-Cal also, to get his teeth cleaned. It took four different visits to the dentist before his teeth got cleaned and I”m sure that if I started asking around, I would find more people that this happens to. People don”t complain about this issue because they are afraid their medical benefits will be taken away. And, for some, it”s the first time in years they have been able to see a doctor or dentist. Also, some people do not even recognize the problem; they do not know that a root canal shouldn”t take six visits to the dentist to complete. The people who do see the problem feel that complaining is not going to do any good because they are only one person and it would be a waste of time. Nothing is going to change. That is what I thought. But, you have to start somewhere. I know I”m not going to change the world, but I can try. Anyway, I didn”t know who to complain to about this. But, I felt that as a taxpayer, it is my duty to bring this to someone”s attention. It”s my right as a taxpayer to be upset about where my tax money is being spent, especially when it could be used in better ways.
Amy Lynd Zingone
Clearlake Oaks
