email doctor

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Two weeks ago, hip pain. Emailed doctor through patient portal. The doctor's office left a message on my phone telling me to call it back. Did not call. Two days later, the doctor's office emailed me to tell me to login to the patient portal. Logged in. It had the nerve to tell me that the doctor wants me to make an appointment to come in and talk about the hip pain.

The doctor could (should?) have written an answer on the patient portal. That's what it is for.

Only been to Kaiser one other time, and it charged me $185 for a 30 minute appointment, and that was just to talk to the doctor. I only earn minimum wage. Do all doctors do that? Only Kaiser doctors? Only my doctor? Minimum wage is not enough for room, board, medical insurance, and utilities. When I get more drastic injuries, i will go to the doctor. But just for every slightest thing, it's too expensive.

What kind of medical insurance do you have?

How often and how quickly did your doctor answer your emails?

IDK what your question was but hip pain can have various causes & a physical examination is important to diagnose the cause. Sometimes various tests are required. If you were just hoping your doc would give you a prescription, the two main types of pain meds are nonsteroidal anti-inflammatories & narcotics. Some anti-inflammatories are available over the counter & if those are not helpful then diagnosing the cause could be helpful. & in the case of narcotics they are getting overly regulated by the government due to some people abusing them so docs are required to perform physical examinations in order to prescribe them.

I have Medicare & Vermont Medicaid. I don't normally send my docs emails. I have routine appointments scheduled & if there's something that cant really wait I'll do a walk in appointment at the same health center & take whatever doc I can get. I never have to pay to see a doc here so cost isn't an issue. However I understand how cost can be an issue with seeing a doc. When I lived in Louisiana I didn't have Medicare(I was on SSI at the time instead of Social Security Disability) & I also had Louisiana Medicaid but no docs in my area would accept Medicaid due to it not paying them enough. That meant I had to have private health insurance that had copays & deductibles, did not cover psychiatrists, & the cost of the insurance was half my full SSI. Luckily I was living with my parents but mom gripped a lot about how I was not contributing financially because I could not afford to when I was not working.