1) On a financial basis, I can't blame a business for reducing risk. When I have a firm fixed price contract to install a satellite ground station, I always do everything I can to minimize risk. Where I can't remediate the risk, I mitigate it through increased price. And if I can't remove risk by remediating the contract or mitigating the risk, then I won't bid on the work. How can I blame a business that specializes in surgery for doing essentially the same thing?
2) Having said that, this is the fundamental problem when you have a third party (either an insurance company or the government) make the contract with the business rather than the party who actually receives the services. The insurance company / government is going to have a primary interest in controlling their costs, thus minimizing the risk that the premiums they receive from the pool of insured people doesn't exceed the money paid out to providers, while the providers seek to minimize the risk that the amount they're paid exceeds their costs to provide the services.
If the individual contracted with the surgeon rather than the insurance company / government making the contract, then they could take all of the individual contingencies into account when doing the contract. And the individual would have a big financial incentive to reduce behaviors that would cost him more in medical expenses (like hip surgery).
How about none of that? Tobacco has been consumed since the dawn of man.
Only now has it been vilified. It’s turning out that their studies, and research is about as valid as global warming research.
if i cannot turn away homos for demanding i participate in their deviant ‘ceremonies’ ...
then doctors cannot turn away smokers ... or fat people ... or democrats ... or ...
Good points.
I firmly believe people should be allowed to smoke, drink, and eat themselves out of existence - except if my tax dollars have to go to any part of the care related to their self-abuse.
Bmk.
Nicotine significantly hinders bone healing and smoking can complicate the recovery from general anesthesia.
Healthy weight, good nutrition, exercise and hygiene are also important when it comes to surgery.
Can’t say I blame the doctors...I am related to a life-long smoker (30+ years) who went in for routine surgery and had complications related to the damage smoking had done to their body...ended up severely disabled as a result. Doctor and hospital ended up paying a high 7 figure settlement...which of course drives up the insurance costs for all doctors.
I run a small business (not a doctor thank god), and once in awhile a potential client will want me to take on a project that would leave me financially devastated if it went wrong...I should (and do) have the right to decline that risk.
People should people able to smoke and kill themselves if they want, just don’t blame everybody else when it all goes sideways.
I guess they can stop treating homos for diseases associated with their deviant life style.
This has been coming for a while.
Whether you smoke or not and whether you accept treatment to stop smoking is part of the permanent electronic medical record.
Just like gun ownership.
The Government/Insurance/Healthcare Magog collects this information for a reason.
I wonder if any of these same doctors perform or approve of the performance of abortions.
Will these concerned doctors and insurance companies adjust their policies to restrict or eliminate services to people who use/abuse illicit drugs?
Can’t help but notice that none of these activist medicos refuse treatment to gang bangers, drug addicts, and other various criminal scum brought to ER’s by LEOs. Illegal alien invaders, from every country, are included within the scum category.
Yes, it is. Smoking is not "the problem." The problem is the imposition of an intermediary between the buyer and seller of the service. (This is also a problem in housing, education, etc.)
The patient wants the intermediary to pay but doesn't want the intermediary's rules. (This is also a problem in housing, education, etc.)
What to do, what to do ...
A two-pack-a-day smoker is going to have a higher risk (of complications) than a two-cigarette-a-day smoker.
In a society where malpractice claims are almost routine in medical care, can anyone blame a medical practitioner for turning away a patient who has an elevated risk for complications?
This is true. I know lots of surgeons, including oral surgeons and plastic surgeons who won’t work on you if you have smoked within a week of the surgery. It is possible to reduce the risks if you use a nicotine patch prior to surgery and don’t smoke. Look at that woman in France who had the face transplant! She couldn’t refrain from smoking, and her surgery failed.
The headline seems to be misleading.
Doctors want you to stop smoking before surgery so you don’t pop stitches.
My dad had heart valeant replacement in Feb 2014. His surgeon told him he would need to quit smoking before the surgery, because he could get an infection from popped stitches dye to coughing fits and die from it.
He didn’t listen and smoked up till the day of his surgery. The surgery was a success. But a few days later, after he was released, his lungs started clearing out which resulted in brutal coughing fits. He popped stitches and got an infection into his chest and into his heart. He was induced in a coma after it almost killed him. He got out of it but never recovered. He died thar November.
Take it from me. If a doctor is telling you to stop smoking before surgery, he’s not on a power trip.
This has been true for a long long long time. And it’s only now being reported?
The guy needs to tell his doc he’s now a former smoker. How would the doctor know the difference?
When will doctors add homosexuality to their list of risky health behavior?
A doctor told me that they worry about smokers having surgery due to the fact that they are prone to blood clots.
They want smokers to quit for a week before surgery.
Unintended consequences of VBP - Value Based Payment that was imposed by your health boss Slavitt before leaving.
Unless Tom Price gets a handle on CMS quickly, it will only get worse as the bureaucrats really believe that all they need is more control of our lives and they can greatly improve our lives for us.
They don’t want to operate on people who smoke tobacco, but they will gladly operate on fat people, or diabetics who eat cake. They’ll operate on men who take their sexual organ and put it into the fecal hole of another man. They’ll operate on women who cut off their breasts, and take testosterone. They’ll operate on CEOs who drink their lunch, and the toney pot-smoking yuppies with whom they golf. They’ll operate on men who take estrogen, and wear wigs. But these pillars of virtue will absolutely NOT operate on someone who smokes tobacco. lol