I’m so sad about how hard it is to find a competent doctor with my HMO plan

I just spent two hours on the phone with my insurance. I don’t understand why it’s so hard to find a doctor with any good reviews at all. I’ve taken chances on several with either no reviews or bad ones, and they were completely awful. I had one PCP assigned that literally no longer had an open office because he got disbarred. Anyone I’ve actually been able to go to has made me wait in the waiting room for upwards of 30 minutes, just to have them rush in and out during my appointment within five minutes. Most office hours are insane, like 10-2 on Tuesday and Thursday.

My insurance has a provider list online that lists providers that actually aren’t covered. I’ve spent hours upon hours calling dozens of providers in my area (I live in a major US city) and even going to appointments just for them to tell me they don’t take my insurance or medical group or they aren’t accepting new patients. Anyone with a halfway respectable reputation isn’t taking new patients, and even the ones that are taking new patients are scheduling routine appointments (the ones that they rush through in five minutes) no sooner than two months out.

My “medical group” is all but nonfunctional. They don’t answer their phone, there’s no online presence, and I’m never in the “portal” and no one can tell me what that even means.

Most receptionists at doctors offices (not all, some really restore my faith in humanity) act like it’s a chore to submit a referral for you.

The doctors and receptionists blame the insurance, the insurance blames the medical group, and the medical group just doesn’t respond.

My husband and I are thinking about trying for a baby in the next year, and I just started crying on the phone with insurance after the second hour because it feels like I just will never have a decent doctor to birth my child. It’s really scary. Scarier is the fact that I am extremely persistent when it comes to these things, and I think about people who aren’t or who don’t have the time in the day because they are working their jobs or people who don’t speak English well, what do they do?? I just hate it all. I guess this is just a vent.

submitted by /u/matchamaker88
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