SamSpade
Well-Known Member
Tying into our other conversation about the AMA, a couple of points; an awful lot of medical treatment could be provided by nurse practitioners or, perhaps some new designation of provider. I've heard arguments where nearly 80% of medical treatments could simply be done on line, via Skype or what have you, and a new prescription regime whereby you don't have to go to the doctors, wait, be seen and then get the exact same prescription you knew they were gonna give you. Not all, mind you but, the vast majority. Heck, even if it's only 50-60%, we're still talking about ENORMOUS savings.
Give you an example. My son. He MUST see the doctor every month - 30 dollar co-pay - so he can get the same meds he's been taking for six years.
Now I am not sure, but my guess is that there's some regulation that says ADD medication MUST be a prescription from an actual face to face doctor visit.
When I have the prescriptions filled, one of them requires an ID before it can be filled, and there are strict rules as to how much can be filled in a month - and how often.
More than once the doctor visit is a few days EARLY and they can't fill it until the requisite time has elapsed.
This is an enormous waste of his time - but they are used to it. Even the staff will ask "just for meds?".
Similarly - there's usually nothing resembling triage in Urgent Care - which is usually VERY full in any place I go because insurance or not, no one bothers to schedule an appointment
when things are urgent. So a gall bladder attack gets put in line behind a kid with a bad flu (happened to ME, years back).
I have to think that part of the problem is - regulations. Rules they have to follow or face lawsuits. And a part of that is, a litigious society and abuse by consumers.
They MUST protect themselves.