We just put this man through a heart Cat only to discover that it had just been done in Fla with exactly the same results. The heart doctor never even made an attempt to talk to his docs in fla...it's much easier for him to order new tests.
A cath-lab procedure will not be paid for by Medicare or any commercial insurance I know of if the ordering cardiologist cannot show medical necessity. That is, if one was recently performed and another is performed, then the second one is not paid for unless it was medically necessary. So, it is incumbent on the provider to show medical necessity.
There is more to this story that either you don't know or you're not disclosing. The Px may have been medically necessary, or the provider may have not been reimbursed for the Px.
Most patients who are ordered a cath-lab procedure to be repeated would just say, "Hey, I just had that done. Get it from my last doctor." As a practical matter, this is done routinely within 24 hours, which is a shorter time than usually is required to schedule a Px in a cath-lab.
As I said, your tale doesn't quite have the ring of truth to it. I suspect you just don't have all the facts.
When we visit his primary care physician, we stand in front of the receptionist's window...behind her is what appears to be a record room. Folders everywhere...all over the floor, stacks of folders very much like ours....thick, papers half oozing out of them...guess what the odds of mistakes and records loss is there, let alone the sheer inefficiency of the process.
This isn't typical. I've been in hundreds of physicians offices in the last few years. And there were a couple that were slovenly like that. I would never use one as my physician, and you shouldn't either.
But if you think for a microsecond that having this guys staff putting data into a computer is going to yield a better result you're nuts. Have you never heard of "Garbage In Garbage Out"?
If anything, what you're going to have is some egregious cases where an incompetent office such as the one you describe enters erroneous data into the central system which is then propagated throughout the health care system. Incorrect data. Big mistakes. Huge problems.
What I'm wondering is where are all those liberals who are so concerned about misuse of personal health care information? The safeguards are totally inadequate. |
