SOMETIMES I WONDER “Guided reality bites: Communications of a revived, rejuvenated and alive physician”
Sometimes I wonder what do my patients want and need to know. That is a question I do not ponder long. I tell them the truth to the best of my knowledge tapered in a manner they understand and can accept. Why is it that the reasonably prudent everyday person understands that a disease invades ones entire body and not just an isolated piece? For example, I have never met a failing heart, a cancerous breast, or a demented brain. I have only met and treated the whole person whom the disease has affected.
Sometimes I wonder is it just me or do the insurance adjudicators and “the powers that be” really believe the hype? The overwhelming trend of our insurance carriers is to only look at a diagnosis in isolation. An individual’s predisposition, vital stats, concurrent diseases, etc. are considered irrelevant in determining insurance benefits. Sometimes I wonder do my colleagues agonize over a medical recommendation on an independent medical evaluation. I suspect most do not. I have no choice but to be true to my calling and oath as a physician. How do you dissect a live person ignoring obvious, pertinent facts and make major decisions about their lives? The number of times I have been accused of being a “patient advocate” by defense attorneys, two former magistrates, and insurance adjudicators makes me feel a little bit proud. Of course they have labeled it as something negative, but I take it as a compliment. After all I am a physician, and the welfare of my patient is in the forefront of my thoughts.
Sometimes I wonder if the public is aware of physician profiling by insurance companies based solely or at least primarily on monies spent on patient care. Physicians like me who take the Hippocratic Oath to heart are profiled, denied permission to treat, denied reimbursement, harassed, and have their patient – physician relationships violated. I am revived, rejuvenated and alive; and I will always stand for what is right for the patient. All too many physicians stay silent and comply in the face of competition for patients and declining reimbursements. I say if I am going to be a physician then I should be one using my medical judgment and expertise from my vast training and clinical experience. If I am to relegate myself to being a “medical provider”, I should recuse myself as being over qualified for the position. As a medical doctor and pharmacist, my training at the University of Michigan and Ohio State University provided me with the background, skills, and knowledge to absorb and acquire continual clinical expertise in my chosen specialties. The current medical climate requires physicians to ignore their own qualifications and replace them with those of the insurance bureaucracy. In other words, in order to care for my patients, I must ask permission of the adjudicator, case manager, physical therapist, or whoever is chosen that day. Often times it is merely a computer program that takes everyone with a particular disease and places them in the same basket. In this system there is no room for individuality. Funny, I thought that was one of the reasons physicians where needed to sort through the individual differences.
Sometimes I wonder if the powers that be truly believe that all that is necessary to practice medicine is to follow a cookbook or algorithm. If that were the case, physicians would be totally unnecessary and health care providers would suffice along with the “recipe book”. The years of undergraduate education, followed by medical school would be unnecessary. The lengthy years of residency “in the trenches” with hands-on life and death experiences; and learning and working your profession from “can’t see to can’t do” would be passé.
Somehow, at least in my world, I still want the comfort of knowing that my physician directly evaluates me, confers with me, and together we decide what is best to take care of all of me. I would hate to have to leave a part of me outside or at home while only that one “insurance approved” part of me is being treated. My other body parts might start to rebel, knowing they are inter-related and cannot be separated in reality like on paper. So there you have it. I am an advocate for the appropriate care of my whole patient. As a true duly trained medical physician I am sworn to be nothing less.
Often I wonder, where do we go from here? Tell me your thoughts.
Agelesslyu, .
.jpg)
.jpg)
.gif)
.jpg)
.jpg "Demeter Library of Fragrance")
.jpg "Reversible Silk Tank")
.jpg "Nivea Extra Enriched Lotion")
.jpg "OPI Nail Polish ~ Aphrodite's Pink Nightie")
.jpg "Cargo EyeLighter")
.jpg "C.O. Bigelow Lemon Lip Cream")
.jpg "Flirty Little Secret")
.jpg "Jean Nate-After Bath Splash")
.jpg "Love Spell Collection")
