[sithlord]

This. It isn't the Doctors responsibility to know all the prices of things and such, they should know what meds you need for your ailment. I would say it would be good if your doctor found out about something (via a pharmaceutical rep or another patient) to pass that along, but not sure it makes sense for them to necessarily know the ends and outs of the current best coupon.

[LazyMans]

A good doctor should be considering how to get the best outcome for a patient, availability and affordability is paramount if you intend to get a patient to follow through with a treatment. No, it's not the doctors "job" to make sure you can get your medication, but I don't think it's hard to argue a doctor that takes these things into consideration is better than one that lives in a bubble.

[zdragnar]

For run of the mill meds, my doctors haven't mentioned considering price, but for an autoimmune issue that required very expensive medication, my doctor helped me participate in a manufacturers program that covered anything my insurance wouldn't over $50 a month.

As it turned out, my insurance wouldn't cover it at all, because they wanted me to try a cheaper, older medicine that had a much worse list of potential side effects.

If it hadn't been for my doctor, I wouldn't have known about the aid program or to enroll in it (technically, it was through a separate, non-profit legal entity, but it still has the manufacturs name in it).

[karaterobot]

Sure, it would be better, but it's not relevant because you described two different jobs. In theory, the best doctor would do everything: diagnose diseases, install your dishwasher, rotate your car tires, give you a pedicure. But as it is, pharmacists are the ones whose job it is to know and give you advice about this stuff.

[Chris2048]

Should they do your taxes too?

[thecyborganizer]

Dr. H. Jack Geiger famously wrote prescriptions for groceries out of his clinic in Mississippi - when challenged on the practice, he replied, "Yeah, well, the last time I looked in my medical textbooks, they said the specific therapy for malnutrition was food."

The best doctors understand that a patient is an entire person, not just some specific problem or disease. Sometimes that means considering factors in their life other than the obvious direct medical causes of their problems. Sometimes that might include the availability of treatments, based on cost or location.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H._Jack_Geiger

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/28/health/h-jack-geiger-dead...

[Chris2048]

Famous because it's folksy nonsense, not because it pioneered medicine.

> Sometimes that might include the availability of treatments

this is about coupons. your doctor won't help you write your resume, even if they could and it would help you afford medicine in the future. That isn't their domain.

Doctors are specialists.

[thecyborganizer]

Some doctors are like you're describing. I posit that the best doctors are ones who realize that the domain of "health" is broad and encompasses things that aren't germs.

Geiger believed that the greatest threat to public health of his day was nuclear war, so he founded an organization (Physicians for Social Responsibility) to try to stop it, because he thought that would be more effective than waiting for the bombs to fall and trying to treat the victims.

You can disagree with his assessment, or the efficacy of his methods, but it's pretty unfair to dismiss them as "nonsense".

[Chris2048]

ok, so should they do your taxes too?

not exactly the same as founding an ethics foundation in their own field

> who realize that the domain of "health" is broad and encompasses things that aren't germs.

what things? mental health? still medical, and still deferred to specialists.

Coupon hunting? Resume writing? not medicine.

[cpuguy83]

I disagree. A doctor better understand the economic impact the drugs they are prescribing to their patient.

[Johnny555]

Medical pricing is so hopelessly complicated that few doctors can even tell you what a procedure at they perform themselves at their own hospital will cost you. I don’t know how they could keep up with pricing for thousands of drugs interacting with formularies across hundreds of insurance plans.

[not_a_shill]

At least on the Rx side, it's really not that hard to have a general idea. Youre prescribing mostly the same medication over and over and patients give feedback, so knowing a general discount card price isn't difficult.

If the patient has a weird formulary or a high deductible, that's on them to understand.

[homero]

Doctors couldn't get pricing even if they wanted to.