It’s been three weeks since my biopsy and I still do not have the results. The appointment I was supposed to have to get the results was cancelled because the doctor was going to be out of the office. Now, I do not like the surgeon. At all. She has a very terrible bedside manner. Even if I needed something further done, I would not see her again.

And now she will not give me the results unless I make an appointment, drive an hour each way to get to her office, and have her spend 3 minutes with me again to tell me the results. At a cost of $136 billed to my insurance company and $108.10 as the allowable. No, I don’t think so.

Seriously, the first time I saw her it was for 3 minutes and that’s how much it cost. The office lady tried to convince me yesterday that was the cost because I had a procedure done. Ummmm, no. I had no procedure done that day. I had that done another day and that is an additional nearly $200 allowed by my insurance.

I have never had a doctor who had an “office policy” that they will not give test results over the phone. It seems a little fishy to me that they insist I come in for another hundred dollar appointment to get my results. Like someone is trying to increase their income. After all, if you see 12 patients an hour for 3 minutes each at $100 a pop, that’s $1200 an hour.

So, since the doctor was out of the office yesterday when I called, I left a message asking that she call me to give me the results. I doubt she will, but I will not go down there and pay $108.10 for my results. I already called my insurance company to lodge a complaint about her. I’ll get the results either by having my regular doctor (who, by the way, I could see for almost 3 full 10-15 minute visits for the same cost as a 3 minute one to the surgeon!) request them or I’ll just get a copy of my record.

This is really ridiculous. (And apparently, according to the office lady, I am very rude for insisting that they give me the results without coming in and paying for an appointment. I did offer to come in for an appointment that I would not be charged for, but that idea didn’t fly with her. One interesting thing, though. The office lady seemed annoyed that I have a high deductible health plan and so I keep an eye on costs as the whole amount is going to deductible. I guess people with traditional type insurance just come in, pay their co-pay, and let their insurance company be overcharged. Nice, huh?)

Update: The surgeon called and was perfectly cordial and gave me the result over the phone, no appointment necessary. She will be sending the result to my regular doctor as well.

The biopsy was non-diagnostic which means there weren’t enough thyroid cells aspirated to tell if there is anything going on with my thyroid. The fluid aspirated was blood and typical cells found in a cyst. So it looks like it is definitely “just a cyst” like we figured. Cysts in various places of our bodies seems to run in our family.