Chronic Health Conditions Discussion and Support

And we managed to find a clinic run by a Native American Tribal group that does sliding scale appointments. So we are no longer paying $ 154 for an office visit, but only $ 45. And the new doctor doesn't require that we see him every time the pain meds run out, but every third time.

After we found this group, we were mentioning this inability to pay full rate to someone who runs one of the local hospitals. And she said that often hospital administration teams know of "free" or cheaper clinics for people to use.

I had never thought of simply calling the hospital to ask them to help with information about our situation. But it makes sense: If local people have a clinic to go to, they are less likely to be showing up at the hospital emergency room.