My Dr. Asked ‘Do you have guns in your house?’ I said ‘ My guns are not broke. My ribs are.’ He then asked ‘ Do you drink?’ “Yep.” ‘ How much?’ “Socially.” He asked for a number. I wouldn’t give it to him. Why? In PA the Dr. is required by DOT to have this info reported if he FEEEEEELS the number is too much and they take your license away, up your insurance and put you in a remedial class. Another money making scam. IF IT SAVES ONE PERSON’S LIFE, WE HAVE AN OBLIGATION TO DO IT. I’m so sick and tired of that phrase. Why don’t they use it for homosexuals, rock climbers, parachutists or damn near anything where we could save ONE LIFE?
A while back, I went shopping for new eyeglass frames and got threatened with driver license confiscation if I didn’t buy the prescription they thought I should have. “I have to report that,” was the nice way to put it.
I bought the new glasses but since then have accepted the Soviet style of lying to people I used to deal with on an honest and fair basis.
And of course, I see quite well with the old glasses and the expensive new pair are in a drawer somewhere, utterly useless.
“My Dr. Asked ‘Do you have guns in your house?’”
If you really want trouble, tell him, “No, I usually either keep ‘em in the car or on my person...”
Seriously, in a similar vein to the “if it saves one person’s life we have an obligation to do it” hpocrisy — where I work we have the option to change insurance plans in October, to be effective in January. Each plan is supposed to provide uniform benefits. In other words if Joe down the hall has plan A, I have plan B, and Bonnie has plan C, all of our covered services / available treatments are the same. The overseer of the plan administration came out with new prior auths for 2013, one of which was initially reported as for low back surgery. It later turned out the language was for any condition related to low back pain for those who had not completed conservative care. Was told each plan can interpret implementation their own way.
I talked to them. They said the intent was not to limit care (it absolutely was) but for those poor unsuspecting first time back pain patients who find themselves on the operating table without having tried conservative care measures.
Then they could have written the language requiring prior auths for in-patient low back surgery (some injections are coded as outpatient surgery, this the clarification.)
But basically, if they were truly concerned about people trying conservative care measures first, maybe they should actually stop limiting access to those same measures...