DOCTORS

The Medical Profession

The medical profession is full of “professionals”; I think that means that they are above the rest of us – mainly because the amount of money they make is far greater than the rest of us!

It also appears that Doctors enjoy more professional prerogatives than normal working people. They can demand things of their patients that would put most other businesses out of business. As an example, if you went to a store to buy a suit and the salesman (not a professional) told you that you have to wait an hour before he could see you; that you’d have to fill out some redundant, irrelevant forms; and that you would have to prove that you could pay for his services prior to being measured – would you use that store?

Then, assuming you qualified to buy a suit, there, how would you feel about being charged for the “consultation”, even when after being measured you are informed that you'll have to go to another store, his friend’s store, because he doesn't do “Sports Wear”; that he only does “Evening Attire”? Heck, my Doctor is turning into a medical referral agency - I wonder if he gets referral fees from his friends!

Another cool part of being a Doctor, a professional, is that they have no qualms about insisting that you (the patient) get sick, needing their professional services, between the hours of 9:00am and 4:30pm, Monday through Friday - except for Wednesdays afternoons and Fridays, when they’re not available. It appears that Doctors must visit their patients - in Hospital - so they can bill their insurance companies for additional, follow-up “consultations”, even when they had nothing to do with admitting you to the hospital. Having been there I can tell you that these “consultations” usually consist of saying things like “Hi, how’re you feeling?” followed by, “You’re looking much better now.” These consultations will usually be billed at around $125.00 per patient! This can be a very profitable afternoon’s effort!

Then there’s the “McDonald’s" office appointment practice that Doctors love to do (Fast Food approach). Ever notice that your Doctor spends very little actual time with you? That’s because the Doctor’s seeing 2 or 3 other patients during that same 15 minute period that you thought was allocated for you. This helps the “professional salary" thing because the Doctor can bill 2 to 4 customers for the same period of time. Remember, you are really a “customer” but they call you a “patient” because you must be extremely patient while there!

In addition, a Doctor must pay the 5 or 6 medical assistants’ that do his/her billing paperwork, answer his/her telephone calls, and file your insurance/Medicare forms, etc.

Now getting back to your suit; can you imagine how expensive your suit would be if your salesman would employ 5 or 6 “clothing assistants” – to hold his tape measure, write down your measurements, file your forms, bring his coffee, etc.? Plus, the follow-up consultation visit - to verify the fit, a week after you received your suit - would have to increase the cost, too!

Then, there's the huge insurance premiums that Doctors must pay their insurance companies. You know, for when they didn’t perform professionally! This might not be as big a problem if Doctors would actually spend the entire 15 minutes (or even more) with their patients; actually communicate with their patients; and didn’t try to multi task for the revenue advantages. But then again, defending them, it's not easy diagnosing an illness in less than 15 minutes - they do their best!

Remember, the Doctor's Professional Code: “Doctor’s make a lot more money by treating disease and illness than by curing them!”

Solution:

The only real way to get around these medical problems (should you get sick) would be to get into a Medical School and become a Doctor, yourself. It might take less time, money and effort than you'll have to expend going through all the scheduling, Insurance Plans research, Doctor Participation Verifications, referrals, and other research requirements. Remember the only real health code: "Citizen, heal thyself!"

Or, force our elected Public Officials - House and Senate - to put up with the same system as we have to put up with!