The reason I keep using those words is to draw attention to the justification for doctors taking incentive money from insurance companies to do something they are
supposed to do.
Why does a doctor
want to take incentive money for a procedure or recommendation s/he is already being paid to do?
I swear to fulfill, to the best of my ability and judgment, this covenant:...
I will respect the hard-won scientific gains of those physicians in whose steps I walk, and gladly share such knowledge as is mine with those who are to follow.
I will apply, for the benefit of the sick, all measures which are required, avoiding those twin traps of overtreatment and
therapeutic nihilism.
I will remember that there is art to medicine as well as science, and that warmth, sympathy, and understanding may outweigh the surgeon's knife or the chemist's drug.
I will not be ashamed to say "I know not," nor will I fail to call in my colleagues when the skills of another are needed for a patient's recovery.
I will respect the privacy of my patients, for their problems are not disclosed to me that the world may know. Most especially must I tread with care in matters of life and death. Above all, I must not play at God.
I will remember that I do not treat a fever chart, a cancerous growth, but a sick human being, whose illness may affect the person's family and economic stability. My responsibility includes these related problems, if I am to care adequately for the sick.
I will prevent disease whenever I can but I will always look for a path to a cure for all diseases.
I will remember that I remain a member of society, with special obligations to all my fellow human beings, those sound of mind and body as well as the infirmed.
If I do not violate this oath, may I enjoy life and art, respected while I live and remembered with affection thereafter. May I always act so as to preserve the finest traditions of my calling and may I long experience the joy of healing those who seek my help.
This is the Hippocratic Oath Doctors allegedly subscribe to. They have already
sworn to fulfill the oath to the best of their abilities:
- Respect hard-found medical research
- Apply all measures required for the benefit of the infirmed: including rejecting therapeutic nihlism and overtreatment.
- Bedside manner
- Rejecting the ego that comes with professing that one knows everything (i.e. say: I don't know.)
- Treat patients according to the human - not as a science project
- Disease prevention is important, but they took an oath to CURE what they can i.e. they will NOT make a patient chronic in sickness for the sake of money, time or circumstance.
Insurance companies that give incentives to doctors to recommend treatment, or carry out procedures means that the doctor is not living up to his or her oath
to apply all measures required for the benefit of the infirmed, to treat the patients as human (as opposed to a science project,) and to CURE what they can, and try to prevent what they cant.
You shouldn't have to tell a doctor, "If you recommend this procedure, or perform this procedure, we will give you $X." That is making patients into commodities. And, it goes dangerously downhill from there. If the doctor subscribed to the oath, s/he would not need an insurance company to incentivize what they swore to do (unless it isn't backed, doesn't help the patient, and/or simply makes a profit for the insurance companies.)
The fact that they accept kickbacks and bonuses
aside from their salary for doing something they are supposed to do is ethically questionable - especially considering many doctors heal the sick for FREE. It isn't like the AMA is giving these recommendations;
insurance companies are giving these kickbacks if doctors do what
insurance companies recommend as a procedure or advice.
