Summary

Not What the Doctor Ordered.

“Not What the Doctor Ordered”

Introduction

According to the survey the insurance companies are applying dangerous techniques in the healthcare insurance policies.

Many U.S. citizens, who are medically insured, have reported that the time when they need they to materialize the insurance facility, the insurance companies try to evade the benefits they are eligible to avail. The insurers do so by either denying the prescribed treatment or by delaying it.

The government policy makers and politicians lay huge emphasize on expanding the insurance coverage to bring in those who don't have it. They have failed to notice the difficulties faced by the currently insured Americans. The investigation article "Not What the Doctor Ordered," by The Blade has highlighted these problems. This article uncovers the troubles faced by patients upon leaving a doctor's office and the reasons behind the often rejections of physician's prescribed treatment by the insurers.

Discussion

This investigation was carried out during 2007 and 2008 when it was being noticed that the insurance companies were using aggressive means to interfere with the doctors prescribed treatments.

The four part series article published in August 2008, shows how often the physicians are hindered in their treatment of the patient because of the insurers. The article shows how this intrusion of insurance companies harms the children, women and men of the country.

The investigation report by Steve Eder and Julie McKinnon is drafted after conducting interview with approximately a hundred doctors in around 12 states and an online survey conducted countrywide accomplishing 920 responses (Steve & Julie, 2008).

The interviews with doctors resulted in the authors meeting with the patients and their families. This way they could gauge the level of seriousness of the troubles caused by the insurance companies' interference in the prescribed treatment.

The Blade introduced readers to Randy Steele, a 64-year-old man from Oak Harbor, Ohio, with hepatitis C who waited weeks to learn whether his insurer would cover a potentially lite-saving kidney-liver transplant.

The authors met children in Ashland, Ohio, suffering from behavioral disorders that terrorized their families and classmates when their Medicaid insurers wouldn't pay for their prescriptions.

And Peter Tsiknis, an 18-year-old from Bridgeport, Conn., shared his story about waiting nearly a year before his insurer would cover a surgical procedure to remove his abnormally large breasts that resulted from a hormone disorder. His surgeon had insisted that his condition wouldn't change without an operation.

Doctors shared their frustrations of knowing how to heal patients but being unable to get them the medicine or treatment that they needed. Some doctors were reduced to tears as they spoke about the struggle.

Aside from dramatic life or death stories, doctors spoke about the difficulties in ordering common tests such as colonoscopies and MRIs for patients who they believe would benefit.

Doctors repeatedly said the insurance company intrusions into the exam room were eroding the doctor-patient relationship.

The sentiments shared in interviews mirrored the results of the online survey, which was sent electronically to members of the Ohio State Medical Association and later to members of the American Medical ...