Defensive medicine at its finest. But who’s counting when it’s someone else is paying?
Related posts:
- Newsflash: MRIs, CTs and ER visit costs are rising sharply
- Reasons why doctors practice defensive medicine
- MRIs
- Breast MRIs
- Exploding MRIs
- Brain MRIs and crime
- MRIs breed MRSA
KevinMD.com on Facebook
{ 2 comments }
Read the comments at the link. They, ironically, demonstrate one of the many root causes of our difficulty: An entitled and immodest society which has bestowed validity to opinion, regardless of merit.
I don’t know if that is what I got from the comments. Nor do I believe that the issue here is someone else’s paying – the patient actually had to pay himself for it; didn’t ask for the test and was essentially blackmailed by the doctor into having the test – “no help until you have the test”.
The main issue here is whether the test was necessary or defensive. Not being a doctor I cannot judge. If the test was necessary i.e. if the boy in fact had a high enough chance of having the condition being testing on to warrant the test, than the patient shall not complaint. If on the other hand, the test not necessary, done entirely for defensive (or monetary) reasons, than it is nothing better than theft. Yes, the doctor might’ve been afraid of lawsuits but why should the patient pay for doctor’s insurance? The patient should’ve been told the probability of the boy having the condition and being allowed to make an informed decision.
Comments on this entry are closed.