Tuesday, March 4, 2008
What role do physicians play in this?
So here is a situation that Jeff and I both are extremely curious about (for what I hope to be obvious reasons), and we would like to hear your opinion....What role do physicians play in this reform? What can physicians do in their practice and with their patients to help work for a steady climb to a reformed health care system? As a patient, do you feel like physicians are either A, a big source of our problem or B, are simply just some innocent dudes with "MD" after their name, trying to do what they love and help some people here and there, who are caught up in the middle of a national crisis at the governmental level? Please share!
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6 comments:
Help pass legislation that requires physicians to provide information to the public that allows us to be better consumers. Currently, only Medicare and Medicaid-related issues must be made public meaning that a huge number of consumer needs for info that would allow them to better select specialists and docs is left untapped. Technology would allow us to research our docs like we do our cars. But, as of now, few states (if any) have passed laws that require it.
My brother is an OB/GYN doctor, and he has quite a bit to say about health care costs. He puts most of the blame for rising health care costs on insurance companies, specifically those that provide malpractice insurance. When he started his practice 30 years ago, he paid $100,000 a year for malpractice insurance! Obviously some of that cost is passed down to the consumer.
A corollary to this issue is the litigious society in which we live. Too many lawyers are ready to swoop down and encourage frivolous lawsuits over uncontrollable situations. One of my brother's partners experienced a situation in which a patient refused a routine pap smear. When she contracted cervical cancer, she sued (and won) because the doctor had not specifically stated she could die if she missed a pap smear. He had told her she needed the yearly test, but he had not used the actual words, "You could die," and a lawyer convinced her she had not been adequately warned against missing this annual test.
My brother became so frustrated over situations such as these that he has now started his own insurance company with several other doctors, and they keep their money off-shore. They have saved so much money by not paying a third party, they have been able to lower the costs passed on to their patients. He thinks limiting the role of insurance companies would help reduce medical costs.
Physicians are in a unique place to affect change in the patients. The current climate in this country where people constantly have watch what they say or else they might offend leaves doctors in a position where they are walking on eggs lest they offend their patients. I believe the crisis of obesity needs to be addressed one patient at a time. I can imagine that this is difficult subject to broach with patients, but in my experience doctors do no address obesity head on. This seems to be a much bigger problem that doctors can start to affect change. Obesity is a tough problem, but doctors can broach this subject with their patients to give them help and honest feedback. The healthcare system debate to me goes way beyond wheter or not people have heathcare-it is the role people are willing to play to doing the things that help themselves be responsible for their health. I think that if doctors can shed some of the fear they have to offend there patients and help their patients see their responsibility for their health we will see a big shift in this healthcare crisis.
Many of the doctors that I am familiar with complain about the current system and the "Emeregency Room" medicine that tends to financially drain and burden others to pay for those that do not have basic care. Essentially, the health care system should look to the phycicians for guidance. The financial side of medicine is "big business" and really takes away from the proper care that should be provided to all. Everything is "priced out" to the point where it is grossly absurd. Occupational therapists are heavily regulated by insurance companies to limit patient's recovery time in the hospital. Limits are understandable, but need to be reasonable. I am not suggesting extreme "social medicine", but rudimentary opportunities for all that are affordable. Get the physicians involved. They care because they want to put the doctor back into doctoring. Otherwise, we should let the "financially fit" survive. Can we live with that?
Physicians have a duty to seek the best type of care for their patients. That means in all areas. If the system is truly "broken" then the professionals in the field need to take an active role in the reform movement. There has been some attempt at organizing physicians in the reforms movement in Colorado (Physician's Congress) I feel that if reform is going to happen, and it needs to in some form, that the physicians need to play a central role in this. The professionals need to come together and strengthen their views on how the system needs to be fixed.
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