OH NO! Dr. Schlachter no longer with UnitedHealthcare?

[Amandala]

Has anyone else heard anything about this?  I got a letter in the mail yesterday from my health insurance company, United Healthcare, saying that my son's pediatrician, Dr. Schlachter in Essex Fells, will no longer be participating.

I am going to call up Dr. Schlachter's office and United Healthcare today and find out about it.  Has anyone else heard about this / know more than I do?

If this is true, this is really terrible for us.  We love Dr. Schlachter and have been extremely disappointed by the doctors we've seen whenever Dr. Schlachter has been unavailable.  And we're going to have to find a new pediatrician in our area who is non/selective/delayed-vaxing-friendly because I am certainly not going to be taking my son to any of these drug-pushing doctors. 

We went to one of Dr. Schlachter's covering doctors recently because my son had a lingering, bad cough and had been exposed to a girl with strep throat.  We just wanted to make sure he hadn't caught strep throat and find out what more we could be doing to get him over his cough.  The doctor walked in, said, "does he have his shots? Because it sounds like Pertussis to me.", (it didn't sound like Pertussis.  He hadn't coughed at all in fact) then pointed at my son's crusty nose and declared that he definitely had a sinus infection and would need antibiotics.  Then he listened to my son's chest and declared that he had bronchitis and the antibiotics would take care of that too.  Then he handed us a prescription for Amoxicillin and sent us to the nurse to get tested for Strep.  Dr. Schlachter invariably tells me something really smart and practical that I should try before resorting to anything more serious like antibiotics - and so far, we haven't had to resort to anything more serious once in two years.  His advice is always based on knowledge, experience and real life, not prescribe, prescribe, prescribe.

My son didn't have strep.  I didn't fill the prescription but held on to it in case he turned out to really need it.  He didn't.  We bought some vicks vapor mist and some Chestal, turned his humidifier up a notch, and he was better in a few days. 

Experiences like this have left me extra fearful of having to find a new pediatrician.

[jo200]

Ugh, we just got the same letter yesterday from Oxford (which is affiliated with United I think). After April 30th Dr. Schlachter will no longer be covered. I'm not sure what to do. We love Dr. Schlachter, but we can't afford to be paying the full cost of every visit.

The one time we saw another doctor while he was on vacation was not a good experience. They were trying to scare us into giving 6-8 vaccines to our daughter (we're doing delayed/selective vaccinations), and they also told us we should be letting our then 3 month old cry it out.

The other local pediatric practice that has been recommended by neighbors is not going to be a good fit for us. When calling to schedule a visit, they ask about vaccinations and say they can't serve families who do delayed or selective vaccinations.

I'll call Schlachter's office next week, but I'm not sure what they can do. Did you get any more info from them or from United? Are there any other doctors you're considering?

[Amandala]

Jo, I do have an update.  I spoke with Dr. Schlachter and he says it's taken care of, not to worry, they will continue to participate.  Apparently there's some recertification they have to do with the healthcare company every certain number of years, and he does it by fax so every time it comes up there are problems with it, he has to resubmit it a number of times before it takes, they say they didn't get it or whatever.  Anyway, he said it took him five or six tries but it's now sorted.

Thank the lord, the idea of having to look for a new doctor who's not like these other doctors we're talking about was actually making me feel ill.

[jo200]

Thank you!! So glad I don't have to worry about finding a new doctor or paying out of pocket.