I thought it would be quicker to ask on social media than to try to find the information on my HMO’s clunky website, or calling and attempting to reach someone in the department directly.
I Tweeted out a basic question:
Can I schedule an x-ray?
And the text above is the response I received, a day later after sending another email through their crazy secure messaging system.
All I asked was a yes/no question.
I know HIPPA is a good thing – privacy and all that. But I spend my work life looking for answers to questions and it frustrates me when the safeguards put in place for privacy put barriers in front of getting information.
How many patients give up, once they can’t get the needed information in a medium they use? How many never bother to take the next step?
I will call or hunt around the web tomorrow, because my feet and legs hurt too much to not do something.
But I don’t like encountering barriers to getting the information I’m seeking.
Natalie Abbott 
That’s really frustrating. HIPAA is great but things like this shouldn’t be that hard to find out.
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This is one of the ways HMO’s control costs. By making it extremely difficult to get care, lots of people give up. HMO gets the same amount of money whether you utilize their “care” or not. But each time someone utilizes care, it hurts their bottom line. It’s evil brilliance at its best.
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