Doctor's Manipulate Their Patients: My Experience with a Doctor as Con-Artist

This assertion and story in no way applies to all doctors or all eye doctors specifically. It applies to one doctor in one situation.

My Story

Those of you who follow my editorials on a regular basis, already know of the year and two months I spent working at Curves For Women for minimum wage on a part time basis, and you may have read the hub I wrote on the joyous day I received my long awaited job offer. After a little over a month on my new job, my insurance benefits have kicked in, and I can finally visit a doctor without going through public assistance, or a charity agency in order to do so.

Due to financial issues related to a layoff three years ago, and self employment with no health benefits for two years followed by underemployment with no health benefits for another year and two months, I wore a one year pair of contact lens for three years. My family assisted with many of my financial needs, but I tried to keep it to a minimum, and often did not mention things I felt I could endure a little longer. They did not realize the contacts were that old, and painful, until after I was again working on a full time basis and had insurance benefits.  

A week ago yesterday, I was able to see an eye doctor for the first time in over three years, and this was no small matter for me. My three year old contacts hurt daily, and often caused problems related to their age. Unfortunately, the eye doctor appointment was scheduled at 11am at Wal-mart, and on that same day I had to take a rental car back, and pick up my own automobile from an auto repair shop.

The rental car company had refunded my deposit, but it was not deposited back into my account until the following Monday, causing my debit card to be rejected at the auto repair shop, and causing me to have to borrow another $221 from my Georgia brother in law, this tiime vowing I would pay the money back in full. Having my card rejected was embarrassing, and getting to the eye doctor appointment on time was a challenge. Therefore, I forgot some very important information I should have shared with the doctor during the exam.

Three years ago, the female doctor who provided my eye exam suggested I go with lenses for the correction of a stigmatism that correct distance vision in one eye, in my case it was my right eye (which is weaker), and correct near sightedness in another eye, which in my case is my left, because better vision is required to read details (letters, numbers, words, etc.). At the time I objected that I feared my right eye was too weak to take any responsibility alone for my ability to see anything, but she convinced me it was to my advantage to try these lenses, and promised to change back to the others if I found them unsatisfactory.

I allowed her to order the lenses, and they turned out to be the most accurate correction I had ever experienced in contact lenses. They were one year lenses, and did not require that I also use reading glasses in order to see as I had always had to do before. I am unwilling to wear glasses in public, due to the abnormal thickness of the lenses I require. I do wear them around my home, and when driving at night if conditions cause me to have difficulty seeing as well as I do during daylight hours.

Last weekend the doctor at Griffin Wal-mart originally recommended the same lenses, but for whatever reason, and probably related to the stress I was under about the car repair and the rental car deposit not coming back through in time for me to pay for my own car repair, I totally forgot that my last lenses I loved so much corrected distance with one lens and close up vision with the other, and again verbalized to him that I feared my right eye is too weak to carry any of the seeing responsibility. Unfortunately, he did not persuade me to try the lens, but instead fit me with distance lenses only, as had been done previously, before the last doctor corrected my vision problem so well.

The temporary lenses he provided felt much more comfortable than the three year old lenses had felt; however, right away I realized I could not see nearly as well. By Monday at work, I remembered that the last doctor had persuaded me to try the other lenses and that they had corrected my vision much better than the distance only lenses had ever done. I decided to ask for the one year lenses when I returned to the eye doctor yesterday, and apologize for the fact that I had forgotten that my last pair of lenses were actually what this doctor had originally suggested. In fact, I wished I had listened to his original recommendation, as not seeing nearly as well was causing me great distress.

Yesterday, I went in for my follow-up visit, and shared with the doctor that I should have listened to his first suggestion, and had remembered during the week that my last pair of contacts had been one year lenses correcting near sightedness in one eye and far sightedness in the other. However, the doctor did not appear to want to listen to me or satisfy my issue. He began to try to persuade me that distance only was the best way to correct my stigmatism.

Since I can tell when I can see and when I can't, this did not work. I shared that the three year old lenses were painful due to their age, but that I could see much better with them than with the ones I was presently wearing. I told him wearing reading glasses is a big inconvenience for me since much of what I do on the job involves speaking in front of people. I explained that putting on glasses to read, then taking them off to look at the crowd, is annoying and distracting, and causes me to not perform as well on the job. I told him that I do not want to wear glasses at all, and did not have to do so during the three year period I wore the one year lenses. I shared that I wished to return to them.

The doctor did agree to examine my eyes again and fit me for the one year lenses; however, he continued to try to get me to accept wearing reading glasses for a full year until my next exam. I was not willing to bother with reading glasses for a full year when a lens exists that does not require me to do so. I have also been having problems seeing with the new lenses while driving and trying to see just about anything. In short, the distance lenses are not correcting my astigmatism at all. I have to wear the glasses the other doctor prescribed every night while driving home, and have to put on the reading glasses to do things other than read. I am even fearful of using the treadmill at the gym because I cannot see well enough to do so.

The doctor then tried to tell me that because my astigmatism had gotten worse in the last three years, the distance lenses and reading glasses was a better option. Problem is, I could see better LAST WEEK with the three year old lenses, so I did not accept that explanation either. My astigmatism has not gotten worse in one week, and the other lenses corrected it better last week than the new ones do this week. Obviously, the doctor had some personal motive for trying to get me to keep the lenses he prescribed other than my vision correction. I suspect that he is either earning less money because of my change of lenses, or is having to work harder for the same amount. His next action made this even more obvious.

The doctor then told me that there would be an additional $20 charge for fitting me for the lenses I need, because it requires a totally different strategy. I don't know enough to question this seriously, even though I doubt the honesty of two statements he had already made; however, ordinarily, I would have just paid the money because I do try to pick my battles carefully, and it was after all, only $20. Unfortunately, I had written a check for half of the auto repair payment to my sister and brother in law, and although I had realized I needed to wait until my next paycheck to do so, they had not responded to my email to her office, their home, or the voice mail message I left on her cellphone saying so. I feared the check had been deposited leaving me with about $20 to run on until this coming Thursday. I could not pay this doctor $20 for another fitting yesterday, and tried to explain that to him.

I actually asked him if it could wait until January, when my United health-care HMO kicks in. My HMO will allow for $200 towards eye care needs, lens, exams, etc, while my vision insurance does not allow that much for both the exam and the lenses. Actually, there will be another $100 in my flexible health-care spending savings account on January 1, in addition to the allowance from my HMO. His statement in exact words, "If you can't EVEN afford to spend $20, you will have to pay the entire $70 again in January." While he later agreed to allow me to pay $20 next week, and the appointment was set, I felt the word "EVEN" was demeaning, and talking down to me because I was honest about not being able to afford a twenty dollar payment at that time. While I did not show my feelings, the truth is I was furious.

I honestly believe this doctor is young, and intolerant of those who live in poverty or on a budget. Perhaps he was born with a silver spoon, and equates poverty with laziness or lack of achievement; however, many at this point in time are dealing with unemployment, underemployment, and returning to work only to spend half (or 75%) of their newly acquired income playing catch up on past due utility bills, past due credit card debt, and settlement payments to credit card companies. When an automobile breaks down without warning, requiring a rental car and repair within only a few days time, many of us are left with very little financial resources until the next paycheck.

Afterthoughts

I run a facility that houses six male substance abuse clients, some of the best cons in the world.  Many of these guys are convicted felons either on probation or parole, and accepting substance abuse treatment as an option to either avoid jail, or get out of jail early.  Part of my job is to see through their con-artist attempts to work the system, and my Recovery House program to their own advantage.  While it is common to assume substance abusing convicted felons are cons, how many of us expect the same from our doctors?  Said to say, I believe my doctor was dishonest with me and honoring his own motives, not my need for improved vision.  Still, as I do so often for the criminal offenders, I will give him the benefit of the doubt, keep my feelings to myself, and attempt to obtain a good fit for the lenses I want from him.  If this works all will be forgiven and forgotten, including the verbal remark and the additional $20.  If it does not work, the manager of Wal-Mart in Griffin will be contacted, and asked to return the entire amount of my money so I can once again go to the doctor who fit me with the contacts that actually improved my vision.  Make no mistake, cons do not always come in Substance Abuse mode, or as convicted felons.