I am actually going to write a post coming up about the fact that I have been more angry and provocative than normal. You helped point that out (along with others’ comments). For contrast, read Monday’s physical exam post.

Keep your head up. It is a good sign that you apologized and I hope you come back and whack me across the shins if I need it.

If I misunderstood the “stupid doctor” statment, it’s not the first time I have been wrong and I know it will not be the last.

As Doc. Rob stated my “problem” was reading one of his most radical postings first. But it was not his ideas I disagreed with (mostly)– It was the delivery.

I am now trying to edit my Masters Thesis down to a manageable size (it is about 120 pages.) It covers several different EMR systems, types of implementations, costs, ROI, efficiency, barriers and other associated issues.

I hope this effort moves me away from being part of the problem (having stated no avenue for solution) and, I hope will help to answer some questions. But I fear it will take a few weeks to cut the meat from the bloated APA standards it adheres to.

Again my apologies…

My beef is not with the management of care – I agree 100% that care/cost has to be managed (I reiterated that multiple times in Washington). My problem is to put a for-profit company as the one to decide if money should be withheld. Even with very nice moral people at insurance companies, there still is a conflict of interest.

That being said, I am mostly just jaded by living the past 15 years in a constant tug-of-war with them about what I want to do and what they say I can do. From the perspective of someone who is tries to be conservative with my ordering of tests and medications, the amount of exasperation I have had from insurance companies has truly made it hard for me to feel much in the way of good feelings toward them. I am sure they were right for denying me, but it just is exhausting to fight every day.

Thank you for listening. It seems I will have to start my own blog to advocate for the ‘dark side ‘ and offer some alternative to oftentimes unjustified ‘ insurance company bashing’.
Maureen

For Charlie – I have no issues with Dr. Rob. He was a very entertaining and personable guy and honestly, as a patient advocate, I felt that he was a good voice to have on our side.

And for Dr. Rob – I am nice. And I don’t care for stupid doctor things. Good calls on both fronts.

We do double-book, but only 1 per hour and it must be a simple (5 minute) medical problem. We found that this allowed people to get seen on the same day of their illness and the accessibility it offered was very much loved by our patients. My staff is good at determining simple from complex. Most of the time I stay fairly on-time.

The purpose of that post was to rant a little at what I see as political games on the parts of politicos and the doctors standing by the sidelines doing nothing but gripe. A someone who is trying to put his voice out there for others to hear, it bothers me when my peers jump into political jargon instead of working on the problem itself. Yes, I get passionate about what I write. Your problem was that you read one of my strongest pieces early on. Really, I try to be even-handed and certainly try to listen to what others have to say (read the recent post “Speak to Me” and its comments as a good example).

That, by the way, was the point of the meeting in DC. We had REAL doctors who take care of REAL patients making their voices heard.

I will take choice of words into consideration, but if my passion spurs dialogue, then I suppose I’ve done what I wanted.