[LINK] Your Medicare records online

[Craig Sanders]

On Wed, Mar 03, 2010 at 11:49:15AM +1100, Marghanita da Cruz wrote:
> Medicare records are not so much about health information 
> but rather accounting.
> 
> One useful application is for regular check ups...Medicare 
> allows for an eye test every two years. At least once, my 
> Optometrists has rung Medicare, while I was sitting opposite 
> her, to check when I had my last eye test. I certainly 
> couldn't remember whether I had had an eye test elsewhere or 
> when.

it's worse than that.

last time i went to an optometrist it was just slightly less than two
years since my previous eye test.

that optometrist was not allowed to test my eyes because, according to
medicare rules, my previous optometrist "owned" me until the two years
were up. i could go back to the old optometrist (who would then "own" me
for another two years) or i could wait until my "emancipation" date.

i had to come back a week or so later. the fact that my glasses were
broken and held together with sticky-tape didn't provide an exception to
this rule.


and it's such a stupid penny-pinching bean-counter's rule. it's not
as if there's a huge financial burden from people having unneccesary
and overly frequent eye tests. mostly people have their eyes tested
when they need new glasses - either because they're broken or scratched
up, or because they're getting fuzzy/poor vision or eyestrain-related
headaches.

also, some people's eyesight gets worse at much shorter intervals than
every two years - not at all uncommon for people who don't need glasses
until their mid-teens...it gets progressively worse for the next 5-10
years, then stabilises.

craig

-- 
craig sanders <cas at taz.net.au>