My contract required me to give them the names and contact info for my PCP, my pharmacy and there was instructions that ‘I should inform all my providers that I am enrolled in this mess.” I had given them the current PCP info, but I moved within a few months of it beginning, changed docs and then again several times throughout the sentence. Never did I update that info and to my knowledge, nobody ever questioned it. I had specialists for a few things and I never said a word about it. There was once instance where I went to urgent care for what turned out to have been a back spasm. I know damn well the PA there didn’t have time to listen or care what the story was. I had declined the Rx for pain meds but that had zero to do with the program and more because I knew I needed a muscle relaxer more than anything.
Maybe the point of informing providers is to lend credence that people ‘like us’ (whatever that actually means) can’t be trusted and we should warn providers to not prescribe stuff we’re not allowed. Frankly, I think that’s a load of manure. The generic rules of these programs seem to be that one informs the program that one will be in need of verboten medications in advance of taking them, for elective surgery for example. Okay...well fine, if I have a legit need for something that will trip a drug test, than sure I’ll say so but if whatever I am doing (having done) doesn’t involve anything that will do that, then it ain’t their business when I get my dental work done or my lady parts check up. To me, it’s another attempt at control and reminding us of the stranglehold on the lives of contractees.
Perhaps, for a person in recovery, that may be at risk of relapse, that there may be a concern of ‘doctor shopping’ I guess is the phrase, this might be a useful idea but as a wholesale policy for all comers, Nope, I didn’t sign away my right to privacy and dignity.
My personal advice...(just me here, not to be construed as telling anyone what to do)... when you get pregnant, pick your OB, drop a note to the program telling them as such and leave it. Have a healthy, uneventful pregnancy and when you deliver, inform program as such, send them documentation of what you may have been given. As far as disclosing this to the doc...if YOU are comfortable disclosing your history, then let that be your choice. If your history doesn’t impact your current care, then don’t but do not feel the need to say it because some faceless program demands (or thinks they can) it.
