[bitL]

One of my doctors refused to give me a prescription for a 25mg version of a medication over a 5mg version (pill could be cut in pieces and still as efficient), as the lower dosage was classified as "cosmetic", commanding 50x higher prices/mg, whereas the higher dosage was "life-saving", therefore cheap. Then I went to another doctor and experienced the same. The same doctor was recommending me to buy the higher dosage and split it into pieces just 2 years ago.

[arkades]

He probably got burned at some point and got scared. We get reviewed a lot more these days.

"You prescribed a 5x higher dose than he needed!"

"But I told him to cut it in five."

"That's not what you wrote in your documentation?"

"Well, if I wrote that in the documentation, it would have been documenting my own insurance fraud. I had to write that it was for (condition that requires 25 mg)."

"Did he have (condition that requires 25 mg)?"

"No, he had (condition that requires 5 mg)."

"So, which is it? Did you commit insurance fraud, or did you write him the wrong dosage?"

One is insurance fraud, the other is malpractice.

Why is it the doctor's fault that we're stuck in the middle of this shit system? Do people not understand that we aren't in control? The insurers, the federal regulators, the combination of the two, (Medicare), the state regulators, the combination of those two (Medicaid), congress, etc. They're in control. It's a happy day when our hands aren't bound from the start of our day to the finish. Don't blame us because we're the face you interact with.

[yeahitslikethat]

Are doctors doing anything to end the requirement that patients get prescriptions for drugs? What are you doing to change the system? The AMA lobbies congress to keep it broken in the favor of doctors and detriment of patients.

Doctors control our right to live. It's contrary to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, because we must get your permission to live.

[arkades]

> Are doctors doing anything to end the requirement that patients get prescriptions for drugs?

(A) Physicians are not some monolithic block. Whatever ones stance on the AMA, they are a single lobbying group. They are not the collective noun for “doctor.”

(B) I, personally, do plenty. I left health insurance for clinical work because I saw how few healthcare leaders understood how to forge more effective care models in the current landscape, and I wanted to do better for people.

(C) I am unaware of any movement among physicians to give people unfettered access to prescription medications (not to say that I’m omniscient - such a movement may exist outside my knowledge.) I would not support such a movement if it existed; it would do massive harm to the public.

[yeahitslikethat]

What evidence supports your claim it would do massive harm to the public?

My evidence for the contrary is any of the countries in the world where prescriptions aren't required.

[bitL]

The explanation I've received was that they don't get any money from the higher dosage from insurance company and as I use it for "cosmetic" reason, I won't get the cheaper one.

[arkades]

Doctors don’t get money from insurers for drugs one way or the other, barring infusions (think: chemo.) An explanation that involves the doc not getting more money from the insurance company sounds like it may have lost something in translation.