The Mayo Clinic was nothing like promised or expected. They don't even meet their own advertising on the website. I asked my personal physician to make a recommendation to solve some of the health issues I was having. He suggested the Mayo because they give you a "team" of doctors to go over you from head to toe. Since some of my friends had also suggested I go to the Mayo I agreed and my doctor set up the appointment and forwarded my medical history to them. The Clinic is about three hours from my home so I anticipated spending at least one night in a hotel. I was somewhat surprised when the first doctor, a cardiologist, saw me but knew nothing of my history. Fortunately I did bring a disk and some printed copies however he seemed overwhelmed. From my verbal description he set up a number of tests and appointments with other doctors. Okay, maybe this will work. But no, getting appointments for tests and other doctors, in some cases, took months. To make a long story short, I spent 5 months driving back and forth, staying in hotels, paying for meals and gas to find out there was no "team" effort and very little follow up. Tests would be conducted and results did show up on the app very quickly but I really needed a doctor to "translate" the results into layman terms. The only real follow up I received was not from a doctor but from a PA who seemed to think high blood pressure and rapid heartbeat were not a big deal. What they didn't tell me were the more serious issues the tests discovered that I only found out about those after showing my personal physician the results. In my opinion, the normal operating procedure at the Mayo is 1) see a doctor, 2) have him schedule tests and other appointments and 3) wash your hands of that patient and go on to another.
One other issue to be concerned about, their billing department is totally inflexible. Some of the cost of tests ordered were rejected by Medicare. I found out the reason was simple, they just needed a reason for the tests, a simple matter of coding. Billing would not budge, I was told that I signed a form saying I would pay what Medicare did not cover. Yes, I did, but I never expected THEY would not bill it correctly. I contacted the doctor who ordered the tests and of course got his assistant who was also inflexible, that I had to work it out with Medicare. Unfortunately that is not how it works.
Don't expect to get any real results from this place but do expect to waste a lot of your time and money. The doctors are uncaring and seemed rushed, more so to get rid of you than to solve any health issues. They should really be ashamed but I doubt it. read more
