I finally had time to watch the Bill Moyer show and see the portions of the film shown on PBS. Maggie Mahar who wrote the book the movie is based 
on stated she started making calls and was amazed at how many doctors wanted to talk as she didn’t think she was going to get many and actually had 5 out of 6 respond.
MONEY-DRIVEN MEDICINE – The Movie (Official Trailer)
There are many areas covered in the video and basically says if you want profit, “do more”, which is what our system does. The interventional cardiologist who spoke wished things were easier and he could just focus on taking care of patients and shows him in a consultation and in surgery too with the catheters. He is operating in an area where technology has changed the entire way surgical procedures are done.
He asks: Are we doing things just to do them, and maybe not necessarily because it is the right thing to do.
Medicare is compared with states that average more than 25% over the national average and those 20% under the national average and the statistics quoted said the outcome is the same.
HMO's worked on cost and not quality, and thus it caved in. Premiums skyrocketed when HMOs stopped managing care.
When patients were allowed to participate in the decision making processes surgery rates went down 25% and satisfaction level went up along with better outcomes.
Hospitals and Doctors competing, marketing in a big key to the interference running today. Patient should be at the center and not the victim of competition, which is what is happening, then, add in the health insurance nightmare on top to get paid.
One physician in the film said:
The official bird of healthcare is a “Crane” look on top of any hospitals and that is what you see, a crane adding on.
Healthcare is about love and the relationship between the patient/doctor and all the marketing, competition, gets in the way. Dr. Weinstein talks about his own daughter’s battle with cancer and her eventual loss and questioning the process, even to when the physicians threatened him, a doctor that they would sue him if care was not done, apparently when he began asking questions.
Overall the portions from the Bill Moyer show were good and the movie does a good job of talking about “what it is” from the words of doctors and patients. It talks about how hospitals have gone corporate and lost the meaning of giving care. Hospitals need doctors more than doctors need hospitals and overall the patient is being left out in the cold and not getting better care with the disruptive system that exists today. More profit, and doing more, the movie states is what is happening, and there are casualties with procedures and treatments not getting done that should. It certainly makes a case for healthcare reform. BD
From the website:
“Money-Driven Medicine provides the essential introduction Americans need to become knowledgeable participants in healthcare reform, now and in the years ahead. Produced by Academy Award winner Alex Gibney (Taxi to the Dark Side; Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room) and based on Maggie Mahar's acclaimed book, Money Driven Medicine: The Real Reason Health Care Costs So Much, the film offers a behind-the-scenes look at how our 2.6 trillion dollar a year healthcare system went so terribly wrong and what it will take to fix it.”
In Money-Driven Medicine frustrated doctors and outraged patients testify to the tragedies which can happen when profit trumps patients’ needs. Veteran physicians stress that reform must begin with a new doctor-patient partnership based on consistent, informed, shared decision-making. “Before patients can reclaim their rightful place at the center of our healthcare system,” Maggie Mahar notes, “we must empower doctors and nurses to practice patient-centered care based, not on corporate imperatives, but on the best scientific research available.”
Money-Driven Medicine will encourage health professionals and patients to work together to take control of American medicine back from the MBAs. The film will alert viewers that universal coverage is just the first step in a long and arduous battle for comprehensive reform continuing well after whatever bill Congress passes this Fall. We have seen that the industry’s lobbyists will resist every measure aimed at cost-containment and results-based care.
http://moneydrivenmedicine.org/
DVDs of Money-Driven Medicine can be purchased now for institutional use at www.newsreel.org or by calling 877-811-7495. Home use DVDs are not offered.
Digital rental for home use will be available at Newsreel.org/Amazon after August 28 for $2.99.
Even though complaints from chronic pain patients are easier to diagnose and document we now have created a situation where doctors are under-prescribing out of fear, especially if their patient are in their last stages of life because the docs can be charged with murder if autopsies shows high traces of pain medication, this indicated findrxonline in article. I pray this madness comes to an end and I sincerely hope none of you will ever be dying in extreme pain in a hospital, nursing home or maybe at your own house while the doctor is afraid to give you that prescription or injection during your last moments. Yes, definitely keep this medication away from kids but do make it available to those who can benefit from it!
ReplyDeleteI agree with what argentina said,...No medicine will help us in the last stages before it is treated in intial stages.
ReplyDeleteI pray this madness comes to an end and I sincerely hope none of you will ever be dying in extreme pain in a hospital
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