Have you been injured by Vioxx?

During this presidential election we have been bombarded with tons of information from candidates, all trying to show their “plan” and how they are different. All 3 have now touched on healthcare with the Democrats laying out a much more detailed plan than the Republican.

While I personally find the Republican plan totally off base (mind you I only skimmed over it), providing tax credits is a band aid solution, I do find both Democratic plans to have some merit, but I would like to offer my opinion on what all the candidates are missing in reforming healthcare. Being on the inside of healthcare for nearly 20 years, I have insight having directly seen what has happened over the years as healthcare cost have skyrocketed and quality has tanked quicker than a fat lady on the Titantic.

No one is properly addressing the frivolous lawsuit epidemic in this country. This country has the highest healthcare cost, particularly when compared with quality and highest percentage of lawsuits than any industrialized nation. Doctors alone spent $6.3 in 2000 to obtain coverage additionally hospitals spent billions more (AM Best Survey, 2001). I’m personally tired of seeing the billboards beside major highways from attorneys looking for clients. The late night TV ads displaying old men with comb-overs willing to help me with my injury claim, or even help me qualify for disability (entirely separate topic).

As a person on the front lines of healthcare it seems the ones without health insurance are the ones yelling the loudest, and looking for their attorney’s business card.

Physicians, Nurse Practitioners and Physician Assistance (just to name a few) pay out the kester for malpractice insurance as do hospitals, clinics and yes, even the big drug companies. These costs are directly passed onto consumers, (just like the oil companies).

Paying exuberant insurance premiums and “settling” lawsuits that should not have been a suit to begin with hikes medical cost. Plain and simple. Drug companies charge high prices for prescriptions to cover not only research to develop new medication, but to cover the multi billion dollar suits they face, most of which are unjustified (see silicone implant lawsuit).

In addition to paying incredible insurance premiums, hospitals and health care workers have to protect themselves by documentation, many anything and everything has to be documented. Seeing first hand what effect this can have on nursing, this does nothing but decrease the quality of healthcare. Nowadays nursed spend 60% of their time nursing the chart and not the patient, this means, lower qualified individuals have taken on the task that the nurses used to perform. So many times I’ve seen inaccurate information on a patient simply do to the person obtaining that information does not know how to interpret the info and therefore does not know if it is relevant or accurate. Instead of the nurse spending time getting to understand their patients needs, problems and issues, they are busy trying to make sure they have documented what is required and expected. This phenomenon is true throughout healthcare.

Another phenomenon that is occurring is that Physicians have begun practicing “Defense Medicine”. This means instead of doing what they know is correct and treating patients accordingly, they are ordering more and more test to substantiate what they already know. For instance instead of listening to a patient’s chest and performing and exam and diagnosing pneumonia, now a 2 view CXR is being performed, along with a CT scan just to rule out any other remote potential finding, in order to protect themselves from a lawsuit. This of course increases healthcare cost, length of time in hospitals, cost to insurance companies and increases premiums. Now $60.00 clinic visit is now over $3500.00 and took 2 days to get the information.

I am not suggesting that mistakes don’t happen in healthcare, I am simply saying that many / most lawsuits brought before the courts are unnecessary stemmed by someone trying to make a quick buck off someone’s insurance.

Somehow in this great legal system we have, legislation needs to be passed to reduce the number of lawsuits. Whether it is establishing clear guidelines, to reducing the monetary rewards an individual can collect (which some states have done), or reducing the fees attorneys can collect or perhaps fining the attorneys who repeatedly bring suits that are ruled meritless.

Concentrating on this task would be a great first step in bringing down healthcare cost, improving healthcare quality and making healthcare more affordable for everyone.