Yesterday my health insurance company caught me on my home phone (yes, I still have one). They had left a message a week ago, wanting to check with me about “health screenings.”
After the computer verified it was really me, the mammogram push started. Have I had one lately? (They must have known that the answer was no, otherwise they wouldn’t be calling.) Did I know that the recommendation is for all women over 40 to have annual mammograms? (Actually, no.)
I have to say it was a very smooth system. The questions were almost all yes/no and the voice recognition software understood all my answers. When I answered, “No,” to the “Have you had a mammogram?” question, the follow-up question was smart. “Do you not have a doctor or OB/GYN right now? Sometimes people skip screenings because they are between doctors.”
This is exactly my situation and the next comment explained to me how to find a doc, “Go to xyz.org and click on the Provider Directory.”
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As I have very strong feeling about overdiagnosis and overtreatment, I wanted to call my health insurance company and ask why they were not following the latest guidelines from the US Preventive Services Task Force. I wanted to ask why they haven’t looked at my family history and seen there’s not much cancer in my family history. Where’s the data analysis? Where’s the personalized medicine?
Can you imagine how that call would go? In the spirit of empathy, I decided to spare the poor customer service rep who would have had to listen to that rant. I should aim higher and see if I can get my insurer’s CMO to answer those questions for me (it’s probably the legal counsel I should talk to to get those answers).
In fact, my family history with mammograms is overdiagnosis. Three times doctors sent my mom for a biopsy after suspicious spots on a mammogram and three times it was nothing. The concern was poorly communicated, “There are some suspicious things, like grains of sand, that we need to check out,” and the exams were uncomfortable. Needless to say, she probably won’t get another mammogram, as the whole experience was unpleasant, and she’s a little stubborn about doctor visits anyway.
No, I’m not going to get a mammogram. I’m going to continue my search for a curious, open-minded doctor who will try a new breast cancer screening that can be done in the doctor’s office and involves no radiation. Plus, it can give you an annual history of changes in your breast tissue. I want to use the new Atossa test.
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I had a lead on a progressive provider (the first place you go to find a new OB/GYN is your personal version of Angie’s List) and I was thrilled to see that there was an e-mail contact form on her practice’s web site. I could e-mail links to my articles about Atossa and get a yes or no answer without having to make an appointment first and then come back for the screening. Ah, efficiency in healthcare!
But of course, that doc is not in my network. I found a doc that I knew and liked in my network, but I couldn’t find an e-mail for her. Maybe I will use snail mail to further my quest for personalized medicine and get the information to her that way.
[Image from flickr user Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com]
