Oh, yes. Just to be in contact with a Pancreatic Specialist, we arranged two or three appointments and paid co-pays with her treating physician to receive medicine while properly diagnosing.
Her physician then schedules imaging / blood work/ etc etc which you pay another co-pay at each, that's called a "referral." Referral results are then sent to university and you pay another co-pay to receive them, nowadays that's done via Zoom. Results are then placed in the hands of a treating specialist, now schedule and pay to see them.
It's a process valued around $300 out of pocket expense if you have premium medical coverage otherwise I can hardly speculate the price tag of a referral process here... 3-5k?? The entire duration, between day 1 with a personal physician to "specialist" and you're only exchanging dialogue at this point, treatment is yet to come: 2-3 months.
RE: It's Worse Than it Looks