<p>How do doctors avoid turning patients down who have no healthcare, or health insurance companies who pay the doctor more for turning down the patient then actually giving them the meds?</p>
<p>...Health insurance companies that pay more for turning down a patient? I wasn't aware those existed. And in response to the first part of the question, a lot of times doctors don't turn down patients due to a lovely law known as EMTALA. Any patients presenting to any emergency room that is at all publicly funded must be found to have no immediately life threatening medical condition. While in theory, this sounds wonderful, the harsh realities of the real world have turned it into a perversion of what it is supposed to be. ED's are far to often swamped with drug seekers and patients who call in ambulances and use the ER Doc as their PCP. I don't know if this is what you were asking, but it's good information to know anyway at least.</p>