How the Insurance Companies Regulate and Control Medical Care
Brett Newcomb and I continue our discussions about the state of the medical system in the United States today. We talk about how pharmacies work with insurance companies to fill (or not to fill) prescriptions. Listen as we evaluate the way that doctors are trained to âseeâ patients and treat them for the best outcomes. Doctors are not trained to see a pool of money and average the amount into their patient care, however, that is what government agencies and insurance companies are doing for themselves and to you the patient.
There are many things that a patient should contemplate before a visit with their doctor. What are their symptoms? What concerns do they have? What do they want to know or experience before they leave the doctorâs office? The visit goes more smoothly when the patient thinks about the answers to these questions and is prepared to talk to the doctor about them BEFORE they go to the office.
One of the areas where medicine is working well in the United States is in the area of hospice care. We talk about what hospice is and how it works. We also discuss the reasons why it works as well as it does.
Once again, we conclude that the most important question when discussing the medical delivery system in the United States is: Where is the money?
It is time for our nation to come together for a serious discussion of how the system works, how it should work and begin to make the hard choices that need to be made. We want you to be a participant in this discussion, to become engaged and talk within the larger community about what you think and what you want, so that you can help determine the path of change as we go forward.