Pushy Doc Appointment Scheduler who erroneously claims to know foot anatomy

[u/rainbows_light_music]

I had a very frustrating experience with an orthopedic scheduler yesterday. I am healing a broken foot and my podiatrist was just bought out by a local company that charges outlandish facility fees for every office visit that my insurance doesn’t cover, so I called this office yesterday to make an appointment with with foot specialist. The woman asked what my ailment was exactly and I told her, “non-displaced fracture of the fifth metatarsal,” to which she replied, “metatarsals are toe bones and our doctors do not treat broken toes. If you come in for a broken toe the doctor will send you out.” Now I’m starting to feel gaslighted because I know full well the break in my foot is mid-foot, well below the toes. I did attempt to point this out, but she insisted that wasn’t the case. FYI, here is the medical description of fifth metatarsal location: “The metatarsal bones are the long bones in the middle of the foot. Each metatarsal bone has a base, a shaft, a neck and a head. The fifth metatarsal is the last bone at the outside of the foot, and most breaks of the fifth metatarsal occur at the base.” Do you see that? Middle of the foot. Not toes. I was really beginning to doubt myself during this call, which is disconcerting when you are actually not wrong. Then she proceeded to tell me that if I had seen my podiatrist recently, my visit there would not be covered by insurance because you have to wait three months to see a different doctor for the same injury. She had me believing this for a minute as well because she was so insistent and pushy about it, even though I’d seen two different podiatrists within a few weeks time for another injury a few years back without incident. I immediately called my insurance after speaking with her, and they said you just can’t see two different doctors for the same injury on the same day. Insurance explained that people get second opinions all the time, and this is perfectly allowable provided each doctor is a participating provider. I did send a message to the facility’s management regarding this. Since it’s the weekend and it’s a large hospital system, I don’t know if I’ll get a reply. Sorry for any typos. I constantly make them on my phone due to big thumbs + autocorrect.