Amen, lakeswimr.

The comments express the exact opposite of how I feel. They accuse allergists of being out for $.  I accuse them (those supporting having general doctors care for food allergies instead of allergists) of not understanding the lives they would put at risk if they got their way.

^^

Seriously, while there are exceptions, there is no doubt that board certified allergists are more qualified.  Why is nobody asking us? 

^ TRUTH.


As long as that is true, I feel so sad that there is still so far to go.   

I would like to comment that if primary care doctors want to treat allergies they should do a better job as a whole to learn about them.  There should not be people dying because they don't have epi pens or other auto injectors or because their doctors told them to use an antihistamine instead of epinepherine as a first line treatment of ana.  There shouldn't be people saying, 'no one ever told me this could happen' after a relative dies or nearly dies.  There shouldn't be doctors telling patients old, outdated, and incorrect things such as that they can't get allergy tested until 1 or 2, to avoid things that cause swelling and hives and then try again at home on their own at age 1, etc, etc.  If they could do as well as allergists then certainly they should be a source of treatment but as a whole they are not doing well enough yet.

Wanted to add some anecdotal experience PCP vs board certified allergist:

When we first moved to No Virginia, we were dealing with Tricare Prime and a gatekeeper at a militaryish med contractor.  The PCP couldn't understand why we wanted a referral to a board certified allergist -- let alone to a pediatric allergist -- and she was incredulous that our son wore a MedicAlert bracelet.

We sprinted away from that facility at record speed and dropped into Tricare Standard where we had ability to choose our medical care providers and didn't have to go through gatekeeper so much.

http://www.medpagetoday.com/AllergyImmunology/Allergy/43838

I had not read about this, to my recollection.  (If we already have a thread on this, please combine, oh-Mod-for-this-board-area.)

Read the comments there too.

Not sure where this lawsuit has gone, or if much else public.