I have found that you can post this in your lobby, on a neon sign outside your building and even on freeway billboards. A good number of patients will STILL think that they can talk you into it. The paperwork comes across my desk and before I know it my MA has received 30 messages and I'm getting numerous calls from the referring doc since their phone is blowing up too.
The answer is still no however it's not always so easy in my region.
Exactly. It's a big pain in the butt. But really, it's up to you what you decide to focus on. If you decide you want to fill out disability paperwork for patients, do it. There's nothing wrong with that. Just know that it means you're going to spend a CRAP TON of time doing it, mostly uncompensated.
That's one thing that makes me very grateful to be in Pain Medicine, in an outpatient physician-owned setting. I can decide what I want to focus on or not. I'm not forced by law (EMTALA) to see, treat and please every single patient that walks in the door, every day of the week, every hour of any day, holidays included, like I used to be. Trust me, that's a very, very painful thing, especially considering people can walk in with an insane demand, and then get pissed of and give you a crappy patient satisfaction score because you didn't comply with the insane demand, and then you get punished by administrators that care about nothing but the hospitals cash flow. I (and you) have the option to say, "Sorry. I don't do that," and I don't have to have a reason. It's great. So take advantage of this. You didn't go into this to be miserable, and hate your job.
I did a lot of this paper work the first couple years I was in practice, because I had the time, I was building my practice, and also a little naive about how out of control it would get. Then I found I was the only guy around doing this courtesy and the mountains of paperwork were piling up. I made the decision to change policies.
"Dr emd123 does not do disability paperwork."
They can have their PCP do it, ortho, or whomever wants to spend all day filling out forms instead of being a doctor. Or I can refer them for a FCE or to whomever wants to do this work. And I realize I may lose a potential patient over it. That is a patient who is going to demand of me, that I spend lots of time filling out papers instead of treating patients. I'm okay with that. That being said, I grandfathered in anyone who I had done this for in my first year or so, and I'll continue to help them with this stuff, but it keeps it to a manageable level.
Are you worried about your referrers getting upset you won't fill out these forms? If so, realize they've already made the decision to have a, "Doctor Referrer does not fill out disability paperwork" policy, themselves. Lol. Trust me, FPs, Internists, Orthos and everyone else realize a 14-yr-old high school pre-med could fill out these forms. But they've already beat you to the punch.
