Ok today's rant will be about the broken system. However let's refer to it as it is, and not with our euphemisms--the pathetic piece of putrid fecal matter of an illness promotion cartel system. Yes, how do you really feel, Emil? I'm angry because in the midst of this crisis, I'm stuck doing 20 minutes of useless paperwork per patient. With all this electronic check-in etc, telemedicine, and making everything accessible for patients, the rate-limiting step is the dump truck worth of information gathering surrounding insurance. I mean, it's ridiculous, we could do the drive through and testing in 5 minutes, but thanks to this illogical system that is geared towards not paying providers for their services and denying patients care they deserve, we are stuck for half a hour in this ridiculous dance. You know, last month, or last year, I still had this frustration, but we were all in it together. Doctors would joke about it, patients would commiserate together with their friends and family, and every once in a while you would see a doctor not take insurance any more. I always admired those physicians because it takes a lot of guts to do that. When I would think to do the same, I would start to think of every single patient who I could no longer likely care for. Our system isn't built for patients to just go to doctors of their choosing. You know the US response to covid-19 is a fair demonstration of the worthless healthcare system it has constructed. I should not have to worry about insurance for 20 minutes and the clinical assessment for 10. I should not have to worry about insurance at all. I didn't go into healthcare to explain insurance to patients. This is completely BS. And it's the first time that I'm realizing there's no fix to it. I have half a mind to just exit this system and start charging for my time like many other professionals do. It's absolutely insane that I cannot deliver the care I want to deliver because I've been mandated to spend the majority of my time doing that which yields no fruit and for which no training would suffice given the complete lack of transparency, efficiency, and precision. I'm just lost on this one, folks, what do you think?
