What's Up, Doc?

Health care reform seems dead out there in Washington, leaving the rest of us in the medical world to try to sort out the mess. It's not fair. Almost half of the phone calls we get at the office every day are about the price of drugs. This one's not covered. There's no generic on that one. My coupon expired. Can you write it it my  husband's name, he has better insurance (no, sorry, we can't). Last Friday one of our patients, an old family friend, waltzed in. He can do that. He knows us. He's retired and once the tennis game is over, the rest of the day is pretty free. He just received a letter from his insurance company. They are requiring him to switch to a cheaper medication for one month to see if it works for him. If not, then he can return to the higher cost brand. He said, "you ever see anything like this before?" Yep, everyday. "Does Shawn like the alternative drug?" No. But we jumped through the hoops, handed over the new script, even gave him some samples of the good stuff to get him through the next month, biding his time until he can get back with the old program. He told me he's above average (and he is - in so many ways, his stand-up comic abilities alone are way above average!). What he meant was that he has above average access to us and it's not fair for the rest of the average Joes who can't waltz in on a Friday afternoon. He's right. I like to think we treat all of our patients like they're above average. But he's right, it's not fair.