Friday, July 18, 2008

More Medicare



Ahh, Medicare what a trip. Got an email from them giving me my new secret codes that will allow me to enter and navigate through “My Medicare . gov. The also sent me, the wildly popular pdfs, “My Medicare.gov Quick Reference guide” and the equally popular “Dashboard Reference”. They also told me that I have to: go get a physical and take a test for “Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm” which is done with ultrasound but I have to pay 20% of the cost; Have Cardiovascular Screening lab tests; Have the choice of a Colonoscopy, Sigmoidoscopy, or a barium enema [three tough choices I would say]; get Pneumococal pneumonia vaccine; Digital rectal exam [Whoopie]; Diabetes screening. Sounds like they want to catch it early whatever it is.

Stopped out at my Dr’s office this morning to get things started. Found out my PA is no longer there and there are only Nurse Practitioners [all female], and Drs. there now. Scaled back the size of their service. The earliest I could get an appointment was August 20th. Our dog groomer is about 3 months out so when you put it in perspective I guess 1 month isn’t real bad.

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