TheAgitator.com
Menino Maligns Profit
Friday, January 11th, 2008In-store health care services offer cheap primary care, ease the burden on emergency rooms, and help people who can’t afford health insurance–or who have insurance but can’t find a decent primary care physician. They also boast stratospheric customer satisfaction ratings.
So why is idiot Boston Mayor Thoma Menino against them? Because they’re driven by profit!
The decision by the state Public Health Council, “jeopardizes patient safety,” Menino said in a written statement. “Limited service medical clinics run by merchants in for-profit corporations will seriously compromise quality of care and hygiene. Allowing retailers to make money off of sick people is wrong.”
I lived in Boston and the surrounding area for 11 years. Profit-as-evil is as ingrained in the culture as rude driving.
Allowing retailers to make money off of sick people is wrong.
Maybe we should start asking physicians, nurses, dentists, and EMTs to start working for free. What could it hurt?
An excerpt from the linked article:
Still, members of the commission said clinics inside retail stores might only exacerbate long-standing problems in the healthcare system. Dr. Paula Johnson, a board member and physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, said episodic visits to a drug store clinic could defeat efforts to provide patients with a reliable continuum of care.
“We could be setting ourselves up for some real problems,” she said.
–Ok, so what problems is Dr. Johnson concerned with? How do “episodic” visits deter from a reliable continuum of care, especially if you are not able to get care under the current system?
I could see, maybe, that recurrent issues or trends may not be diagnosed properly, but those type of issues (based solely on my personal experience) will only be solved by the determination of the patient. How many times has a patient with chronic symptoms be mis-diagnosed only to be cured or treated properly when the patient seeks other answers? I know I have with issues relating to esophogeal ulcers. Had I continued with my “continuum” of care, I would probably be dead. I found answers by NOT being seen by the same Joe every time and challenging the answers given.
I think this is a wonderful idea for the Boston area. I look forward to see such clinics pop up in my local CVS type places.
Allowing restaurant owners to make money off of hungry people is wrong too.
Oh crap, I think I just wrote Hillary’s next campaign commercial.
I may be a bit out of line here, but the recent proliferation of “quick clinics” (in the south Solantic is starting to rise up) may be the answer we need to “fix healthcare” in america.
Affordable, convenient care that exposes Americans to the price of individual services. Puts the choice regarding the level of care in the hands of the patients.
Long-term, if more people rely on quick clinics for their twice a year head cold/cough/upset stomach, they may be less inclined to need to carry traditional health insurance, and move towards high deductible HSAs.
Kaiser Permanente can make a profit off of patients, but Wal-mart can’t?
At a $30 co-payment, no one I know gets a “reliable continuum of care.” As it’s designed to do, the co-payment keeps patients AWAY until the last moment, repeatedly. But that’s the standard of care at one of the Nation’s highest-repute HMO’s.
It says right over the front door “Patient heal thyself!”
The only problem I have with it is that Medicare would pay me $37.50 for a regular visit. Yet, the last time my wife used an urgent care center, for some back pain, it was around $300! I think healthy competiton might actually stop these guys from soaking patients. The problem is, business as usual means charging as much you can get insurance and people to pay! It is all the money. As George Bush said… money trumps all!
What about for-profit health insurance?
I wonder how much health insurers gave to Mayor Thoma Menino’s campaign?
I’ve worked in emergency care for several years. Two considerations that came to mind immediately:
1. The immediate distinction between these clinics and an ER is the availability of advanced diagnostic procedures and treatments. For the sorts of minor things people go to in-store clinics for, the clinical judgment of a trained professional is likely to be adequate without all the extra tests that drive up costs.
2. When that is not the case, a good professional will refer the patient to a higher-level facility. This is, and has been, standard practice for urgent-care facilities for years.
I’m actually suprised that the HMO’s haven’t started this themselves. There is no reason for someone to have to go to an Emergency Room for a cold or the flu except in extreme cases. The problem here is access to your Doctor in the evenings and weekends. No I don’t expect a doctor to be available 24-7, but there should be some place besides the ER to get this taken care of. When I lived in Jacksonville Fl. in the 80’s, I loved the Acute Care centers and they took my insurance.
CVS came up with this idea, not da Mayah, that’s why heez was pissed at yooze knuckleheads. He’s got to go in ‘09; somebody has to give him a run for the money..and run him out of town. Just thlinkin’ outta loud, all yooze guys.