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SilverSpring
Doctor-Patient Complaints
The realities of the practice of medicine today are a bit more complex than "Tell Me Where It Hurts" [Feb. 6] suggests. The patient-physician relationship has regressed as a result of a third party: the health insurance companies.
In primary care services this interference is particularly evident.
1.) Time spent with patients has decreased as the volume of patients seen daily has grown. Also, there are fewer primary care practitioners, and insurance companies demand that all patients are first seem by their PCP, before any referral. So quality suffers.
2.) Fewer patient services are covered, and because the PCP is the person who usually brings the news to the patient (your insurance will not pay for that MRI or for this medication), the first burst of anger and frustration is directed at the PCP (killing the messenger.)
3.) There is no effort on the part of the industry to educate patients about prevention and/or specific diseases, and the importance of compliance.
I agree with you: I should be a better physician and my patients should understand the limitations imposed by the system. But please, do not leave the insurance industry out of the picture.
Joseph Gutman, MD
