[RedChariot]

Originally Posted by zonerboy

Indeed things do change, and often not for the better. In ancient times when I became a physician, many of the arrangements and relationships so common today would have been considered gross violations of medical ethics. Upon graduation, I took an oath to always put the health needs of my patients first; before personal comfort and convenience, before any financial considerations, and even before the needs of family and spouse. I can recall over the years many a time Thanksgiving or Christmas festivities were interrupted because I was called in to care for someone needing urgent surgery. I was not allowed to know what type of insurance plan they had, or whether they had any insurance coverage at all. I just went in and took care of the situation whatever it might have involved.
So back to the present. As a retired physician I know the difference between good medical care and not so good. Over the past several years I was quite satisfied with the care rendered by my primary care MDs at The Villages Health. But last year when my wife required serious back surgery, I wanted it to be done by the best back surgeon I could find. I did not want my choices to be limited to those having some sort of contractual or network connection to TVH. Because we had original Medicare plus a BC/BS supplement, I was able to choose practically whomever I wanted. So I did. And the operation was a great success.
For this reason we desire to keep our current insurance status and so will be forced to seek new primary care doctors. And I'm not too happy about it. Hoping the whole United Healthcare arrangement goes belly up and the Morse family is stuck with many fancy, new, but empty medical office buildings.

Thank you for this excellent post. You sound like many of the physicians I worked with over my long career as a Registered Nurse. Many a holiday or weekend I would need to call in the OR for a surgery that could not wait. Snow storms and ice on the road did not matter. That OR team would come. This is the level of dedication I expected from TVH. Dedication to the health care of a senior population. What a foolish old nurse was I. I will begin to search for another doctor. But I know I will not find the likes of you sir.