OT - physician referrals ????

i'm pretty knowledgeable in some aspects of health care - but i'm a real dumb-ass when it comes to the rest !

my question is about referrals - who can refer me to another doc ? what if my pcp refers me to doc b and doc b can't deal with my problem, so he says i need to see doc c - can doc b refer me to doc c, or do i have to get the referral again from doc a ?

my limited understanding is that ONLY pcp's can refer, not specialists -

sorry, but dealing with my 88 yr old mom and her equally old boyfriend and their medical issues is making my head spin

any help would be greatly appreciated and may prevent my premature self inflicted demise !

I had to go back to the PCP for everything when I had an HMO. It was terribly time consuming and inconvenient. Some PCPs are good and they will just give you referrals without any problems. They will also sometimes give you the referral without going there if you've been there recently. My last PCP was pretty good with it, but she thought "I was playing the game" by going to see her. I was trying to explain that I didn't want to play this game, it was what I Had to do to get where I needed to go unfortunately. She made it out like it was my fault...

thanks so much for the responses guys -

i found out this morning that, at least in this case, provider c will accept a referral from provider b as long as the patient does indeed have a provider a/pcp -

there seems to be no black and white in this venue - maybe that's a good thing - but honestly, this whole medical mess just sucks -

every time i'm dealing with one or both of the above mentioned oldies, i wonder about all the rest of the geriatric world that are going it alone !