Insurance Hassle
I’ve written before about the frustration from all the hassles and paperwork associated with insurance companies and the tremendous cost they add to a practice, but here is a recent example.
This is a 3 page document they want answered and faxed back to them before they will decide if my patient can continue using the medication that has helped her for the past year or more.
This patient had tried other medications and they were either ineffective or not well-tolerated.
But since her insurance changed, I now have to spend time completing this 3 page document.
This cannot be cost effective for anyone involved and puts the patients at risk for complications when their drugs are delayed or denied.
If this drug is denied, the patient and I will have to complete another process to try and get the decision overturned.
This is just one drug on one patient. The burden to the practice is becoming overwhelming!
posted by Anonymous at 7:34 AM
7 Comments:
So why is it that you folks in the medical profession are so powerless to reign them in?
You are after all a key link in their chain of sales are you not.
Prescription medications require a Doctors signature do they not?
Could it be your profession is as subject to lack of cooperation as are many other entities?
The biggest reason is that physicians cannot negotiate as a group.
It is against the law and we therefore are thousands of individuals with no bargaining chip for negotiation.
Don't worry, Dan. Your time soon will not be needed once the government moves to the mandated CCHIT-approved EMR. The government and insurance companies will then simply enter your computer through their back-door portal, siphon off any information they desire, make their decisions, and take you out of the loop entirely. And, while there, they can pick through any other information you have on a patient such as who has HIV, whose husband is beating up on whose wife, and who got gonorrhea during spring break.
HB,
That brings two points to mind.First of all explain briefly concerning the law you are referring to. Perhaps there could be a lobby to change it.
Secondly, is it illeagal for you as individuals to voice your your irritation directly to the drug companies and /or insurance companies?
Further, do you not think that if
thousands of you as individuals tied up their phone lines on a daily basis your voices would go unheard?
My personal experience is that even with large companies, a contiguous persistent onslaught will more often than not net favorable results.
The question is whether or not one feels strongly enough to make the time commitment necessary to acheive them.
I have placed a useful link which addresses the surface issues of this proposed mandate.
Take the technology one step further and you can see the Big Brother scenario.
http://www.emrupdate.com/forums/p/7323/56971.aspx#56971
For anyone interested in the politics of medicine, here is an informative Power Point presentation.
http://www.box.net/shared/static/ceebmf946k.ppt
I GET SICK AND TIRED OF PEOPLE THINKING THAT PHYSICIANS GET THINGS FROM DRUG COMPANIES - WE DONT- EXCEPT A FEW SAMPLES EVERY SO OFTEN THAT WE TRY AND GIVE OUR PATIENTS WITH NO INSURANCE- WE ALSO ARE TOO BUSY TRYING TO STAY IN BUSINES AND HELPING PATIENTS TO SPEND HOURS ON THE PHONE AS A PREVIOUS WRITER SUGGESTED--ALSO WE CANNOT CHANGE THINGS AS A GROUP AS THATS NOW AGAINST THE LAW- THE INSURANSE COMPANIES NOW TELL US WHAT WE CAN ORDER AND HOW MUCH- SOCIALIZED MEDICINE IS HERE-- HILLARY WILL ONLY PUT IT UNDER GOVT CONTROL AND COST US ALL BILLIONS.
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