Oddly political

[williamofoccam]

 As most people who know me, I am not much for politics.  However it's started to concern me more recently...

Let me start by saying that I don't have an answer to the healthcare situation, so I'm not going to pretend that I have an answer.  I've got conflicting experience which while I feel it gives me a better graps on the topic doesn't make it

Comments

[careswen]

I think that's one perspective that's missing from my background -- a more balanced view of patients. As a patient advocate depending on the provider to make care judgments, I was biased toward the needs/desires of the patient. If the clinician told me treatment X was needed, I believed them, and fought to get it covered. Of course, there were times that patients wanted things that weren't appropriate, like expecting their insurance to pay for non-rehabilitative massage therapy. Sorry lady, Blue Cross isn't going to pay for us to rub you down just so you'll feel good, when there's nothing wrong with you. I can definitely see how someone in the position you were in could have more exposure to the cynicism-inducing patient behavior.

And I don't think all providers are innocent, either. I was fortunate enough that I feel like I worked with mostly-honorable people. But I have seen providers continue applying the same techniques, even though it's not working, when they should have referred the patient out for a different approach. Sometimes they just can't admit that what they're doing, even if it isn't wrong, isn't working for that patient.

There needs to be checks and balances. Unfortunately, there's no impartial party to the system, so it becomes a war between opposing forces.

[williamofoccam]

I think you hit on a BIG point, while there needs to be checks and balances there isn't an impartial party.

You did work for what sounded like a really good clinic. It sucks that the rules of insurance companies to keep bad clinics in line hampers the good ones so much.

I didn't have a good experience when I worked in the patient setting. I was young, idealistic, and underprepared. Looking back it could have been much better if I had some of the knowledge I currently have.

[careswen]

One of the biggest conflicts I had with patients was getting them to understand our fee schedule. They would balk at $150 for an hour of treatment, assuming that that fee only covered the clinician's time. I sometimes had to remind people that we also used that money to pay our rent, for the other staff, the copier -- all of the "invisible stuff" that is still necessary to accomplish their care.

It makes me think about how we'll manage pricing and overhead when we have our own practices someday. Kinda scary.