08-24-2021, 01:46 PM
(08-24-2021, 11:56 AM)p_rushing Wrote: [ -> ](08-24-2021, 08:36 AM)KingIngram052787 Wrote: [ -> ]I know because of the healthcare crisis in our country many folks don't have a PCP, but if you have a regular PCP that you go to at least once a year who knows your health history and you have a good relationship with, then it's a no brainer.
I understand what you are saying, but I believe most PCPs have their patients best interest in mind. I mean, they sort of have to or their revenue stream goes away. Not everyone is good, but it seems you have a rebuttal for everything that everyone is just in it to make money and it's some giant conspiracy, which it's not.
Most PCPs are garbage and don't have the best interest of their patients in mind anymore. If you are sick, you spend more money. They are overworked and don't have time for any research to actually heal you or get you off a Rx. They may initially care when they start but most just don't have the time or stamina to treat their patients like they should. You cannot be treated if you spend less than 5 mins with your doctor. They just look at your chart and say do this, take this, etc. Everything is standard treatments but are not tailored for you.
Doctors make money but really today it is harder to make money as medicare et al has cut payments and frankly they lose money seeing too many patients without private insurance.
A PCP is basically only good at detecting something abnormal. They are not specialist, there is no way for them to know everything they would need to know. Basically they are just a gate keeper to give you drugs if something is abnormal in labs or tell you to go to a specialist.
I went through a medical billing and coding and medical office assistant course several years ago and I was shocked at what I learned. Well, not entirely shocked. More like it confirmed what I suspected but hoped was not true.
These are truer than most people want to know. Insurance companies dictate how much time a doctor spends with a patient; not the doctor, the patient or the reason for their visit. That, and the absurd schedules they stack patients in to keep the flow of patients and their co-pays going. They'll schedule more than one patient for a 15 minute block. Sometimes this is done because patients don't show up, but also it's because they're trying to recoup the money they lose on Medicare and Medicaid patients.
Our most recent PCP was fresh from college when we first started seeing her. She was definitely an optimist and ready to tackle the world. Five years later she's already feeling the weight of having to be a doctor in today's medical system. She is a turnstile who does nothing but look at your numbers, listen to your complaint and refers you to another doctor for what ails you. You can get a RX for an antibiotic if your cat bites you, or Prednisone if you have a sinus infection. Otherwise you are referred out. On a one-on-one basis she knows absolutely nothing about me outside of my cat bites me on occasion and I get sinus infections from time to time. And she spends almost all her time looking at a screen and not her patients. My mom has the same complaint with her PCP and her GI doctor.
Before I was diagnosed with an abdominal wall endometrioma in 2018 I was told by three doctors, all specialists, that I had endometriosis. I knew 1000% this was not true because nothing supported that diagnosis but no one would listen. They were going by what they'd seen before in all their years of practice. I even shared with them what I discovered in my research of my symptoms and evidence (scans and biopsies) that supported it and asked them to look into it. NOPE. I was told it simply had to be endometriosis and pushed a drug on me (that I refused) that was manufactured for prostate cancer, not endo, and had never been approved for treatment of endo.
I fought and searched for a doctor who would actually listen and think outside the box and found one at Duke in Raleigh who had not only heard of AWE but had treated several patients with it. By the time I had surgery to remove the AWE, it had begun to wrap itself around my sigmoid colon and was in the process of doing major damage. I lost about a third of my sigmoid colon and now have lifelong issues because three other doctors were too busy with their stacked schedules and too stuck in their "years of experience" to listen to someone who provided actual intel because she knew her history and her body better than they did. A lot of doctors these days think we are stupid and uninformed, and many people are WebMD warriors, but some of us are very informed and do not take anything lightly when it comes to our health.
When I make a decision regarding my health it has nothing to do with what the media says, what some alphabet agency says, what the POTUS says, what some influencer says, or anyone else. It comes from what I know about myself and my health and medical history for the last 49 years. I do the research and compare it with my history and talk with my alternative doctor and make an individually informed choice. Anything else is just rolling the dice and hoping for the best outcome.
(08-24-2021, 01:00 PM)KingIngram052787 Wrote: [ -> ](08-24-2021, 11:56 AM)p_rushing Wrote: [ -> ]Most PCPs are garbage and don't have the best interest of their patients in mind anymore. If you are sick, you spend more money. They are overworked and don't have time for any research to actually heal you or get you off a Rx. They may initially care when they start but most just don't have the time or stamina to treat their patients like they should. You cannot be treated if you spend less than 5 mins with your doctor. They just look at your chart and say do this, take this, etc. Everything is standard treatments but are not tailored for you.
Doctors make money but really today it is harder to make money as medicare et al has cut payments and frankly they lose money seeing too many patients without private insurance.
A PCP is basically only good at detecting something abnormal. They are not specialist, there is no way for them to know everything they would need to know. Basically they are just a gate keeper to give you drugs if something is abnormal in labs or tell you to go to a specialist.
LOL. Out of all of the [BLEEP] you spew on here, this may be my favorite.
Believe me when I say he's not entirely wrong.