• ramirezmike@programming.dev
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    2 months ago

    The thing that’s missing here is context. It’s hard to care about a random doctor prescribing an extra $200 for a patient that is taken out of the tens of billions of dollars of profit a year that health insurance companies make.

    Like, this car seat anecdote costs as much as an hour meeting of a few of their higher paid employees.

    Does that really matter? Should it matter?

    • aidan@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      The real thing is many regular preventative checks are a huge money maker for physicians while not actually being that effective for patient outcomes. IIRC its been argued prostate exams are an example of this. IMO, routine removal of wisdom teeth is another, and routine circumcision is an obvious one.

    • EatATaco@lemm.ee
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      2 months ago

      These are different questions, I was responding to the implicit claim that it’s ridiculous that someone other than a doctor could understand what is medically necessary.

      Although one thing my wife has expressed shock about since taking this role is how much waste there is, and how much doctors prescribe that is just clearly not medically necessary.