For any of my readers who still think that their Dr. cares about them and only wants "what's best for you," you need to read this article from Dr. Douglass. It's all about the money. That's why my surgeon conned me into an ORIF, which is very dangerous and has a 50% FAIL RATE according to one article! (That article is on this blog somewhere) That's why instead of a nerve block and pain meds I got sedation and g/a along with the nerve block. Not enough money for the medical team doing it the way *I* demanded that it be done! My Dr. also sanctimoniously "allowed" me to get away without having an MRI on my wrist. He acted like he was doing me a huge favor! Now I can guess why he was acting like that. Pretty sure he is part owner of the MRI. He had the x rays, and I wasn't paying for a damn MRI so that we could see that "Yes indeed boys and girls, the wrist is broken." Here's the article. Be very concerned about the motives of your Dr. and any medical staff. Be skeptical. Believe it when I tell you that you and your medical staff have different goals from medical treatment.
This is what Dr. Douglass has to say on this subject;
The business of modern medicine
You have to spend money to make money. That's an accepted fact in the business world. What a lot of people AREN'T ready to accept is that mainstream medicine is one of the biggest businesses out there -- which means that all of those same business rules apply.
So when your doctor spends big bucks on diagnostic imagining equipment, you know good and well who's REALLY footing the bill.
You are.
That's why it came as no surprise to me when a recent study found that docs who buy or lease MRI machines have much higher rates of screenings -- and ultimately, surgeries.
Researchers looked at Medicare claims for low back pain filed between 1998 and 2005 by primary care doctors and orthopedists, then isolated numbers on docs who bought or leased MRI machines in that time.
They found a 32 percent increase among primary care docs in the months immediately afterwards. Orthopedists had a smaller increase -- just 13 percent. But that's because the machines helped keep them busy in other ways: That 13 percent boost in MRIs led to a 34 percent increase in surgery rates, according to the study in Health Services Research.
If the surgeries were beneficial, I wouldn't have much of a problem with it. But for patients with back pain, neither the screening nor the surgeries that result from them are necessary.
As I told you recently during a similar exposé on X-rays for back pain, nearly everyone ends up with disc "problems" like slips and bulges. (Read more here.)
But most people never feel a thing -- proving that these disc issues are not the real cause of pain, just a convincing excuse to operate.
And that's why most people who go through back surgery end up in as much pain as they were before, if not more -- because now they’re recovering from an invasive procedure to boot.
So if your doc wants an MRI for something like back pain, find out if he owns the machine – and if he does, go get a second opinion.
____________________________________________________________________________________
Get it? Your relationship with the medical community is based on the money to be extracted from you and your insurer. It is necessarily an adversarial one in a lot of cases. (most?) Be an informed patient! Protect your interests, your money and your most valuable asset, yourself.
No comments:
Post a Comment