Why the U.S. Pays More Than Other Countries for Drugs

MorkandMindy · Dec 1, 2015

bhsmte said:
...

Lastly, in the United States, about 50% of doctor prescribed medicines, are either not filled by the patient, or they are not taken as prescribed if filled. This is a huge issue and has been for a while.

partly because doctors prescribe inappropriate drugs to get the kick backs, and also because most of us don't trust our doctors to help us in preference to their own bank accounts

I have no health issues but I know my doctor wants me sick so he can make more money. He wants to charge for monthly office visits because no one else can measure blood pressure according to his office,

and wants me on statins which of course I don't need both for the kickbacks and for the harm they do

bhsmte · Dec 1, 2015

MorkandMindy said:
partly because doctors prescribe inappropriate drugs to get the kick backs, and also because most of us don't trust our doctors to help us in preference to their own bank accounts

I have no health issues but I know my doctor wants me sick so he can make more money. He wants to charge for monthly office visits because no one else can measure blood pressure according to his office,

and wants me on statins which of course I don't need both for the kickbacks and for the harm they do

Ok cool, I would stay away from doctors then.

dogs4thewin · Dec 1, 2015

bhsmte said:
Ok cool, I would stay away from doctors then.

I do not believe the poster meant that literally all doctors are like that.

bhsmte · Dec 1, 2015

dogs4thewin said:
I do not believe the poster meant that literally all doctors are like that.

I would read again, the claims he made.

dogs4thewin · Dec 1, 2015

bhsmte said:
I would read again, the claims he made.

I read the claims, and I cannot see anyone seeing ALL doctors are a particular way.

bhsmte · Dec 1, 2015

dogs4thewin said:
I read the claims, and I cannot see anyone seeing ALL doctors are a particular way.

He said, most of us don't trust doctors to care for the patient, vs their bank account.

Pretty broad and bold statement, IMO.

I wonder what the posters expertise is, to determine if the doctor is properly prescribing medicines.

Also, I wonder if they are aware, how tightly referral and prescription patterns are monitored now by the feds. Drug companies have had a boatload of rules applied to them, to assure any compensations to physicians that are improper, could land someone in jail.

dogs4thewin · Dec 1, 2015

bhsmte said:
He said, most of us don't trust doctors to care for the patient, vs their bank account.

Pretty broad and bold statement, IMO.

I wonder what the posters expertise is, to determine if the doctor is properly prescribing medicines.

Also, I wonder if they are aware, how tightly referral and prescription patterns are monitored now by the feds. Drug companies have had a boatload of rules applied to them, to assure any compensations to physicians that are improper, could land someone in jail.

and yet there is still MAJOR issues with prescription drug issues.

bhsmte · Dec 1, 2015

dogs4thewin said:
and yet there is still MAJOR issues with prescription drug issues.

What are those major issues?

dogs4thewin · Dec 1, 2015

bhsmte said:
What are those major issues?

The fact that they are so many pill addicts that turn to the streets.

bhsmte · Dec 1, 2015

dogs4thewin said:
The fact that they are so many pill addicts that turn to the streets.

There have always been people addicted to drugs and many of those drugs are street drugs, which a physician can not prescribe.

If you are trying to state that as a general rule, drug problems people have are related to how physicians prescribe drugs, you would need to support that with evidence.

MorkandMindy · Dec 1, 2015

wow, you guys are good, and I'd say you both pretty much summed up how I was feeling

After that post I had the courage to phone my health plan and change to a different medical practice which someone I know uses and sounds a bit better. Sorry for not wording my statement carefully, it was partly a practice run for the phone call.

What I should have said was:

1. I'm sure doctors are varied like the rest of us,

2. that the one I have is just an example of what at least one doctor gets away with, actually I've heard similar stories so it isn't unique,

3. I'm concerned that the huge length and cost of training are counter productive, forcing new doctors to focus on repayment over doing the right thing for their patients
.

bhsmte · Dec 1, 2015

MorkandMindy said:
wow, you guys are good, and I'd say you both pretty much summed up how I was feeling

After that post I had the courage to phone my health plan and change to a different medical practice which someone I know uses and sounds a bit better. Sorry for not wording my statement carefully, it was partly a practice run for the phone call.

What I should have said was:

1. I'm sure doctors are varied like the rest of us,

2. that the one I have is just an example of what at least one doctor gets away with, actually I've heard similar stories so it isn't unique,

3. I'm concerned that the huge length and cost of training are counter productive, forcing new doctors to focus on repayment over doing the right thing for their patients
.

Why would you have to phone your health plan, to change doctors?

And it is true for any profession, some professionals are better than others and no one would debate that.

My question would be, how do you go about determining whether a physician is practicing good medicine?

MorkandMindy · Dec 1, 2015

bhsmte said:
He said, most of us don't trust doctors to care for the patient, vs their bank account.

Pretty broad and bold statement, IMO.

I wonder what the posters expertise is, to determine if the doctor is properly prescribing medicines.

Also, I wonder if they are aware, how tightly referral and prescription patterns are monitored now by the feds. Drug companies have had a boatload of rules applied to them, to assure any compensations to physicians that are improper, could land someone in jail.

The specifics were:

1. he would not renew my prescription for the fairly mild and widely used blood pressure medication I was on, causing some damage as my blood pressure then rose into mild hypertension for 2 weeks while the pharmacy kept sending out faxes and getting no response from him

2 the problem may have originate from my failure to book another blood test to gather evidence that I should be going onto a medium or high strength statin as he recommended after the first test even though it failed to yield anything but normal cholesterol levels, as had all previous yearly tests back in England.

3 he relented to just another blood pressure test, which are as a rule taken in something of a hurry and under a lot of pressure. My home readings are accepted as they are fairly consistent and make more sense than the office ones. The problem I would suggest is he doesn't get paid for them like the monthly office ones he wants.

My blood pressure is slowly moving towards normal as my life becomes more normal, I have finished moving countries and am back in employment, hard work but good with reasonable managers, a huge improvement on what I had back in England
.

bhsmte · Dec 1, 2015

MorkandMindy said:
The specifics were:

1. he would not renew my prescription for the fairly mild and widely used blood pressure medication I was on, causing some damage as my blood pressure then rose into mild hypertension for 2 weeks while the pharmacy kept sending out faxes and getting no response from him

2 the problem may have originate from my failure to book another blood test to gather evidence that I should be going onto a medium or high strength statin as he recommended after the first test even though it failed to yield anything but normal cholesterol levels, as had all previous yearly tests back in England.

3 he relented to just another blood pressure test, which are as a rule taken in something of a hurry and under a lot of pressure. My home readings are accepted as they are fairly consistent and make more sense than the office ones. The problem I would suggest is he doesn't get paid for them like the monthly office ones he wants.

My blood pressure is slowly moving towards normal as my life becomes more normal, I have finished moving countries and am back in employment, hard work but good with reasonable managers, a huge improvement on what I had back in England
.

No excuse for a doctor to not respond to requests for a prescription refill from the pharmacy. if the doctor has concerns, he should let the pharmacy know he will not refill until he has more data to go off of.

On the other hand, there is nothing wrong with a doctor wanting reliable information (BP measurements), before they prescribe medicines. BP measurements can vary quite a bit, depending on the time of day they are taken and the equipment used.

MorkandMindy · Dec 1, 2015

bhsmte said:
Why would you have to phone your health plan, to change doctors?

And it is true for any profession, some professionals are better than others and no one would debate that.

My question would be, how do you go about determining whether a physician is practicing good medicine?

I'm with Blue Cross Blue Shield who pay out for lots of doctor practices, and they know a lot of doctors are ripping them off. I had to phone BCBS to change practices, beyond that I don't know much about the system.

I don't know how to determine if a physician is practicing good medicine, I could only choose someone my sister is with because she has not yet had any problems.

bhsmte · Dec 1, 2015

MorkandMindy said:
I'm with Blue Cross Blue Shield who pay out for lots of doctor practices, and they know a lot of doctors are ripping them off. I had to phone BCBS to change practices, beyond that I don't know much about the system.

I don't know how to determine if a physician is practicing good medicine, I could only choose someone my sister is with because she has not yet had any problems.

I am confused. In one post, you claim you don't trust doctors, because they are trying to line their pockets. Then you state, you don't know how to determine if a doctor is practicing good medicine.

I am familiar with BCBS. If they thought a doctor was "ripping them off", they would drop them like a hot potato and may even seek medical fraud charges against them.

MorkandMindy · Dec 1, 2015

bhsmte said:
No excuse for a doctor to not respond to requests for a prescription refill from the pharmacy. if the doctor has concerns, he should let the pharmacy know he will not refill until he has more data to go off of.

On the other hand, there is nothing wrong with a doctor wanting reliable information (BP measurements), before they prescribe medicines. BP measurements can vary quite a bit, depending on the time of day they are taken and the equipment used.

I take mine around 11 AM on days when I'm not going to be at work, and after sitting still looking at a picture for 5 minutes.

In the doctors office I once had a pulse of 135 because I'd been a bit late and the results are pretty much useless I'd say. It isn't surprising they use my results. But at home I have also graphed my results and can see how long it takes the medicines to work once I get re-prescribed, how much what I am doing affects the readings, and the overall gradual downward trend that is now visible among the fluctuations.

MorkandMindy · Dec 1, 2015

I spoke with the practice administrator asking why I needed to come in and she explained that I needed to come in for a BP measurement. I had only two weekdays I would not be at work, the two days before Thanksgiving. She said that was no good because my doctor would be on holiday and I would have to get time off some other day.

I then asked if anyone else in the practice can measure blood pressure and she made no reply.

I guessed a 'yes' would have allowed one doctor to take money another one felt was his, and a 'no' would have given be just cause to decide the practice was generally rather incompetent, but I could get no compromise to suit my working hour off her. Having said that, by working the past weekend I have gotten two days off this week, but I didn't know that at the time.

bhsmte · Dec 1, 2015

MorkandMindy said:
I take mine around 11 AM on days when I'm not going to be at work, and after sitting still looking at a picture for 5 minutes.

In the doctors office I once had a pulse of 135 because I'd been a bit late and the results are pretty much useless I'd say. It isn't surprising they use my results. But at home I have also graphed my results and can see how long it takes the medicines to work once I get re-prescribed, how much what I am doing affects the readings, and the overall gradual downward trend that is now visible among the fluctuations.

Looks like you are doing the right things in regards to monitoring your BP, assuming the equipment is calibrated correctly.

In regards to your pulse, 135 is extremely high, simply because you were rushing, unless you were actually running for a few minutes, right before the pulse was taken.

bhsmte · Dec 1, 2015

MorkandMindy said:
I spoke with the practice administrator asking why I needed to come in and she explained that I needed to come in for a BP measurement. I had only two weekdays I would not be at work, the two days before Thanksgiving. She said that was no good because my doctor would be on holiday and I would have to get time off some other day.

I then asked if anyone else in the practice can measure blood pressure and she made no reply.

I guessed a 'yes' would have allowed one doctor to take money another one felt was his, and a 'no' would have given be just cause to decide the practice was generally rather incompetent, but I could get no compromise to suit my working hour off her. Having said that, by working the past weekend I have gotten two days off this week, but I didn't know that at the time.

Are you from Canada?

Why the U.S. Pays More Than Other Countries for Drugs

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