Does your doctor make you sign an arbitration agreement before treatment?

[RadicalMom]

Went to an orthopedist today and they insist that all of their patients agree to arbitration, and are prohibited from suing if they screw you up. I have had a variety of medical problems, unfortunately,in the past five years, and this is the first time I've ever been told to sign that, or else. So, we refused to sign it, and left. I'm going to research the other ortho doctors in this area, before I'll sign any agreement. I'm assuming this is a malpractice insurance issue, but has it become mandatory?

[Dookus]

1. never heard of it

and I would've done exactly as you did.

[RadicalMom]

2. I would have RUN out the door, if I could walk.

[msgadget]

3. No

Or, maybe that should be, "not yet".

[alittlelark]

4. The Ins industry lost BIG $$$$$$ in the tech bubble

they want you to subsidize their loss.

[NYC]

5. I've never heard of it here.

[RadicalMom]

6. It's helping to verify this isn't standard. The secretary told me that

ALL of her doctors make her sign one, gee always have. My husband and I exchanged rather meaningful glances at that. I got so mad tonight that inspired me to research my knee problem some more, having forgotten my motto "Surgery is a LAST resort." I'm calling my hubby's very honest and helpful CHIROPRACTOR tomorrow, to see what he thinks could be done. So there's some benefit from the aggravation. Anybody who wants to protect himself against lawsuits before he even MEETS you, must be something.

[Liberal In Texas]

9. It is not "An Industry Standard" They want to make it so..

and the will if we let them.

The best thing to do is say NO and if they won't treat you, walk out.

Find another doc who doesn't do this.

It's kind of like going (years ago) to a car dealer that told you you had to have an undercoat to rust-proof the car.

When was the last time you had your car rust-proofed?

They're all out of business.

Scam.

[RadicalMom]

10. That;s what we did, and they were seemingly shocked. I'd prefer

it if this happened to them all the time. People don't read the junk that they sign, or they're afraid "Doctor God" won't like it and, what, still not treat them? Brain dead.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

7. This is new to me.

He may (possibly) be hard to insure? This would scare the pants off of me. I would've bailed so fast all they would have seen is my dust trail.

[RadicalMom]

8. This is a large multi-office practice with a central location in Van Nuys,

about 40 miles from here, where they encourage you to go for "procedures," but this office was very expensive, intimidating in itself, and had quite a few doctors on this staff. Blanket requirement. Felt like we'd escaped from a den of snakes.

[Liberal In Texas]

11. Good for you. You did escape ffrom the snakes den. n/t

[Lone_Star_Dem]

12. I'm from that area

Look around for better care and I'll ask my family about this. My sister just had to have knee surgery and made no mention of any thing like this, but I'll ask.

[Sgent]

13. At least

three major malpractice insurance companies now requires arbitration agreements on all outpatients (ie not emergencies).

It is also being adopted by many physicians throughout the US as a risk control measure.

Finally, about 25% of flordia physicians do not carry malpractice, an they use it to help aleviate risk.

[RadicalMom]

14. Thanks. I live in the Conejo Valley, in Thousand Oaks, Ventura County.

I'm also going to ask my husband's chiropractor for a recommendation, if he can't help me out. I don't know if he can do anything for floating cartilage (been that way for 35 years, but it recently travelled boldly to where no cartilage has gone before, and I can't straighten it.) I need to stay in this area, because it would be really rough to have to travel too far, with peoples' schedule conflicts.