What to do if you can’t get to a doctor in a timely manner due to a shortage of appointments

Trying to make a doctor's appointment lately. Well, you know how frustrating it can be to find an available opening. But what happens when you need care and you can't see a doctor for weeks or even months in some cases? Well, there are some steps that you can take while you wait. And for that, we want to bring in more information about the appointment process and how to navigate the long wait times. We want to bring in Dr. Sophia Yen, the co-founder and CEO of Pandia Health. Dr. Yen, thank you for joining us this morning. I'm sure this hits home for a lot of people right now, including myself. Thank you so much for covering this important topic and having me here today. So welcome. So let's get to the root of this. For starters, what are you noticing? Why does it take so long to get a doctor's appointment? Well, particularly right now, there's a boom in the awareness of menopause. And in 2002, a research study came out and scared everybody from menopause, but in the past two to three years, Naomi Watts, Oprah, Haley Berry, Tamzin Fadel have brought awareness to menopause and the new research. And so more people are hitting their doctors and the offices are being impacted. And when I did a secret shopper, it's on average taking three, six months, even a year to get in to see somebody for a new appointment or for a menopause-specific appointment. Yeah, certainly some of the factors to consider there. And also, too, I noticed when it comes to specialty doctors, you can end up waiting several months versus your primary. At what point would you tell someone to just find a new provider? I would say that generally you can hopefully ping your primary care provider because internal medicine, family medicine are trained to do the basics of whatever your concern is. However, if your primary care doctor is referring you to a specialist and it is like six months or a year out, then I would suggest looking either outside your current system or there's potentially online specialty consultants. But know that that may not be covered by insurance. Know that they could give you a bill and then you can submit your insurance, but it's not guaranteed that it will be reimbursed. OK, so, Dr. Yen, what can we do while we wait? in this particular instance, like you say, especially when it comes to those specialty doctors? Yes. So for specifically menopause, there are several online telemedicine companies, but know that you need to check, or if it matters to you, that some of them are nurse practitioners, physician's assistants versus MDs. Know that if you use other telemedicine companies, they're generalists and they may not be specific if you're looking for an endocrinologist or an OB-GYN. So always check who is the provider and then also know that the telemedicine companies often are driven by for-profit venture capitalists and will try to upsell you on things that are not necessarily randomized clinical trial proven, FDA tested, FDA proven. And thank you for adding some context to this. When it comes to Pandia Health, where does this come into the picture? Obviously, that's something that you are the founder of. Thank you so much for bringing us up. We are the only women-founded, women-led, doctor-founded, doctor-led, asynchronous telemedicine. And with asynchronous, you don't need an appointment. You can start your care 24-7. We see birth control patients in one business day, and that's for the pill patch ring. And for peri-slash-menopause, we see patients in three to five business days. And we can prescribe in 14 states. There's also Pandia Pharmacy, a separate entity, which I am a minority percentage owner, and that can deliver the birth control pill patch ring or the HRT patches and or other things for HRT to 49 states plus DC. Wow. Interesting. All right. Well, Dr. Yen, thank you so much for your time this morning. We appreciate it. Thank you so much for having me. You're welcome. Here's more information on your screen. Julie. All right. Thank you, Makia.