Lots of Hoops to Jump Through to Get Blood Pressure Medication: Unnecessary Specialist Referrals, Urine Testing for Illegal Drugs, Mandatory Use of ""Contracted"" Blood Testing Lab, and Uncooperative Office Staff. I transferred to Dr. Maletz this year after my previous Family Doc retired. In the 5 months I was a patient of Dr. Maletz, he would not prescribe refills for blood pressure medicine. At my first visit, he referred me to a specialist ""to see if there is anything else going on."" (Though he didn't say what that specific thi After 3 months of expensive testing with the specialist, I was told that I ""have nothing going on that you need a specialist for . . .with the report we'll send Dr. Maletz, he should have no problem prescribing the medications you need.""
When I returned to Dr. Maletz to get the medications, he said he just needed to get one more blood test before he prescribed the medications, ""just to make sure that [my] body doesn't have any interactions between the medications."" I couldn't get the lab test done that day, because LabCorp was already closed, so I called Dr. Maletz's office and requested a lab order for a different lab. The office staff informed me that they wouldn't do that, because ""LabCorp is right down the hall"" from their office, and ""[We] have a contract with LabCorp, so there is no reason for us to write a new lab order."" Later that night, while trying to find another LabCorp location with better hours, I noticed that Dr. Maletz had ordered not just a blood test, but also a urine test for illegal drugs! By this point, I decided that there didn't seem to be much of a point to seeing a Doc who didn't seem to know basic blood pressure medication, sent me to a specialist for no apparent reason, ordered blood tests from a lab with crummy hours (then refused to give me another order for a different lab), and then ordered a urine drug testing on my urine without even telling me why! I do have one thing positive to say about Dr. Maletz's office--if you decide to be seen there, it's almost guaranteed that you will have a better experience than I did.
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