Based on a true story
Imagine you are a healthy, active, driven person who has saved $250,00-$1,000,000 towards your retirement. You suddenly find yourself with unusual or mysterious health issues only to be ignored, gaslighted and unable to find answers to your illness!
The average person isn't planning for a misdiagnosis event and is relying on their health insurance company to pay all of their medical bills. Unfortunately, this is not realistic with our broken healthcare system.
Even financial expert Dave Ramsey doesn't provide a plan or financial solution to prevent a medical misdiagnosis.
Misdiagnosis Statistics
In a Mayo Clinic study consisting of 286 patients, researchers found that only 12 percent were correctly diagnosed by their primary care physicians. More than 20 percent had been misdiagnosed, while 66 percent required some changes to their initial diagnosis.
I suspect this number could be severely underestimated based on the high percentage of people who are extremely unhappy with their healthcare experience.
A misdiagnosis at your doctor's office could potentially cost you $250,000- over a $1,000,000 and this does not include the price of your unnecessary physical and emotional suffering.
Factors impacting the cost of your misdiagnosis include:
The severity of your misdiagnosed condition
The length of time you were incorrectly treated
The resulting complications
Medical costs for the correct treatment plan.
Pain and suffering
As a conservative example, let's use ten years of lost wages, your emergency fund, health insurance and retirement savings (50% matching contributions), potential forced sale of home or foreclosure, and medical bankruptcy.
Add in your annual high medical deductibles and out of pocket medical expenses and you could easily see a loss of $1,000,000.
NOTE: The example above is NOT a cancer patient or a patient who is frequently hospitalized.
This is a person whose health suddenly or slowly falls apart over time because they have been misdiagnosed with a condition such as chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, Parkinson's disease, long COVID, Epstein-Barr (EBV) or an autoimmune condition such as MS, rheumatoid arthritis or inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).
If you are a complex or unusual case, you are at greater risk of a misdiagnosis, which can ultimately lead to job loss, unnecessary physical and emotional suffering, divorce, disability and homelessness.
I can't tell you how many times I have spoke to a person in their 20's who had their doctor tell them they are NOT sick, it's all in their head or it's just stress!!
If you are seeing multiple specialists, they don't have time to pick up the phone and discuss your case. This leaves most patients to slip down a rabbit hole of physical and emotional torture!
Lauren: A case study based on a true story.
As a young, successful sales executive, 33 year old Lauren's misdiagnosis destroyed her quality of life for TWELVE YEARS!
Lauren's annual salary, commission and bonuses amount to $120,000 per year. This does not include her employer based health insurance, health savings account and 401 K plan (matching 50%).
After experiencing stomach pain and bloating while attending an out of town business convention, she found herself extremely ill and scared when she returned home.
As her symptoms were worsening, Lauren sought out a gastroenterologist to conduct a thorough evaluation.
Lauren found the specialist through her health insurance company's list of local
"in-network" physicians. Her mind was in "emergency mode" and she had no idea how to prepare for her initial appointment/consultation.
Lauren was screaming in pain as Dr. K conducted a flex sigmoidoscopy (evaluation of Lauren's lower part of the small intestine and colon) in his office with no sedation.
Lauren's formal diagnosis was ulcerative proctitis (Inflammatory Bowel Disease). She was advised this would be a permanent, life long condition that she would need to manage.
There were no other tests run or discussion as to whether there could be another potential cause of her symptoms.
Dr. K prescribed two commonly used medication therapies (Asacol-oral and Canasa suppositories) for daily treatment of her diagnosed condition.
Dr. K took little to no interest in Lauren's well-being and spent a minimal amount of time with her. There was no patient-physician relationship established. Lauren was extremely scared and went home in tears.
According to the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation, approximately 1 in 100 Americans are affected by INFLAMMATORY BOWEL DISEASE (IBD) with around 70,000 new cases diagnosed each year. This includes both Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis.
KEY POINTS from CCFA:
Age group most affected: Young adults between 15 and 35 are most commonly diagnosed with IBD.
Cost burden: IBD patients often face significantly higher healthcare costs compared to the general population due to treatment needs.
Lauren always questioned whether she really had IBD
She consulted with a celiac specialist two years after her original IBD diagnosis and had an upper endoscopy which revealed that she was negative for celiac disease (stomach biopsies were negative/normal).
During the next twelve years, Lauren would experience painful flare-ups so
severe that it would take several weeks to reach remission.
Lauren found herself unable to call on her client offices and attend morning meetings due to excruciating stomach pain, cramping and diarrhea. Her condition and the associated physical suffering was severely impacting her quality of life.
It was also creating anxiety about the possibility she could lose her job, as well as placed a severe strain on her personal relationships. Lauren was forced to leave her sales position after two years of suffering with ulcerative proctitis.
During the next ten years, Lauren was unable to work a full time job which led to severe financial loses, including future retirement savings. It also severely impacted her self esteem. She had three colonoscopies from three different gastroenterologists. The test results would always reveal similar pathology (biopsy results) with a diagnosis of patchy proctitis and inflammation.
BUT... Is it Really Inflammatory Bowel Disease?
Approximately twelve years after Lauren's initial diagnosis, she began to seriously question her diagnosis as her symptoms were worsening when taking the prescribed medications for IBD. She saw a new gastroenterologist to express her urgent concerns.
Dr. H told her:
I highly doubt you are allergic to your IBD medications. We don't like our inflammatory bowel disease patients to stop taking their medication.
Dr. H offered no alternative IBD treatment options or solutions at this critical appointment.
During the same appointment, Dr. H advised Lauren that a new cutting edge lab test was available to determine whether she really had IBD. Lauren agreed to take the test as she felt strongly that she didn't have IBD.
Within two days of this appointment, Lauren ended up having the worst flare-up of her life and almost had a colostomy.
Think about Lauren's long term suffering from being forced to leave her job, her years of painful flare-ups and former active lifestyle,
Can you place a price on Lauren's long term physical, emotional and financial suffering? Can you place a dollar figure on your quality of life when you are a driven, active person?
Stay tuned for "Part II" as we discover what Lauren's real diagnosis is!
Do you know anyone who was diagnosed with Inflammatory Bowel Disease and questioning their diagnosis?
Contact me today to schedule your one hour paid phone consultation with me!
Remember: This is your QUALITY OF LIFE!
Blessings,
Sylvia Reisman
Founder & Chief Patient Advocate
PURITY PATIENT ADVOCATES LLC
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