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Re: SemanticsFrom: ainsron (ainsron@sbcglobal.net)Thu Dec 30 10:54:50 2004
So do you! Good Job! Ronald E. Ainsworth -----Original Message----- From: ob-gyn-l@obgyn.net [mailto:ob-gyn-l@obgyn.net] On Behalf Of Gordon M. Goldman Sent: Wednesday, December 29, 2004 8:30 PM To: Multiple recipients of list OB-GYN-L Subject: Re: Semantics Garry, You have the 'right stuff'!!!! One of my pet peeves, also. I have for the past 10 years or so, been crossing out "Health Care Provider" under signature lines for all forms. There was a very interesting article about a decade or so ago from an internist in California. I think it was in a Time Magazine series called 'My Turn". He berated society for accepting all the euphemisms that they (managed care) use to describe the practice of medicine. Something to the effect that he didn't go to 'health care provider school', he went to medical school, etc. A really good article if you can lay your hands on it. Thanks for spreading the word, even if it is the 'old fashioned way', one patient at a time. On another note, last July we received a notice from one of the insurance plans, that as of our liability renewal date, we would be dropped from their plan, unless we raised our coverage limits from the state mandated minimum of $500,000/$1,000,000, to their minimum of $1mil/$3mil. I don't know what the differences are in other states, but in Missouri, it amounts to about 15-18% increase in premium. We sent them a letter explaining our reasons for not doing this. Their response was that they would make a final decision closer to our anniversary date in January. Well, when we had not heard from them by December, We decided to 'draw the line in the sand'. We sent a letter to all of our patients in that plan, some of whom we had taken care of for 20 years. We explained to them why we might not be able to continue their care and specifically, the reasons why. We sent the letter on a Thursday. The next Monday, we got a call from the health plan asking why we did that. We told them because it was in our patient's best medical interests to know they may have to change physicians soon, and why. They said we lacked a spirit of cooperation. We said, all we did was to be upfront and honest with our patients, so they could prepare accordingly. We asked them if there was anything dishonest in what we said in the letter..... dead silence. They called again two days later, stating they had been deluged with angry calls from benefit managers and patients, and asked us not to send any more letters. We told them, as soon as we have an answer from them, another letter would be sent out. The tone and content of that letter would be entirely up to them and what they had decided. Within 10 days of the time we sent the letter, we received a letter back from them retracting their demand for increased liability coverage. I guess what I am getting at, is that we have enormous power to influence what the public perceives medicine to be, or not to be. The little things, like what you just did, will be passed on by that patient to others and the 'snowball effect' will come into play. Thanks for doing that, Gordon M. Goldman, M.D., FACOG Private Practice, St. Louis, Missouri "Will you now be my care provider?" I didn't miss a beat when I said, "No, I'll be your Obstetrician." Garry
-- Garry E. Siegel, M.D. Private Practice Roswell, GA
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