I thought this was a very thought provoking about all the demands there are on our physicians.
Having a couple in my family, I know they wrestle with the paperwork and trying to give good medical care to their patients. I’ve seen the hours worked, the hours spent calling insurance. The hours spent calling patients. The hours spent trying to be a good physician.
This is a small example of the kind of bureaucracy that patients and doctors have to wade through.
My husband had a heart attack at 47. It was probably caused by the autoimmune disease he has. He was overweight and stressed at the time. Lost weight, exercised more, changed his job. Heart was doing great. He was seeing his cardiologist once a year but the cardiologist said, you are doing great. We don’t have to see each other every year but you are my patient and I will see you anytime.
Husband has surgery this year and they stopped one of his medications. He needs to see the cardiologist and reassess his medication. Call the office. Sorry, you haven’t seen the cardiologist in 3 years, you need to get a referral before we will schedule an appointment.
Call the referral line at husband’s PCP. It’s a black hole, who knows when the referral will be coming. No follow up. Now my husband has to track down a message service to see if they’ve done what he needs.
It would have been much easier to see the cardiologist once a year.
That’s why my family sees a hematologist every year even though three of the four of them have never had any problems with their inherited bleeding disorder. They want to be set if they ever need surgery because they would be required to take recombinant Factor VIIa. Without a doctor, they would be out of luck.
I’m currently waiting to hear if my insurance approved a certain procedure. Had I requested a repeat a year ago when all was still fine and dandy after the first one, no referral would have been needed, and I would have been treated right away. This is so ridiculous and is such as drain on everyone involved in making actual medical decisions.
Summary: Wall Street may now own your physician’s office and the emergency room, just like how it owns many of the shrinking number of insurance companies, drug companies, pharmacies, etc. as well as being your landlord.
Perhaps that is why so many Harvard students go to Wall Street where they can collect part of the money flowing into there, rather than being part of everyone else (including physicians and other health care workers) that Wall Street squeezes money out of.
A thread about this article already exists.Moral Injury in Physicians (NY Times)