This month’s Physician’s Practice online cartoon deals with the bane of every physician’s existence: prior authorization. Health insurance companies have made it difficult for doctors to get their patients the medicine and procedures they need in a timely fashion for the simple, ugly fact that it cuts into the insurance company’s profits.
I did this cartoon for PP because it not only fit their editorial needs, but because this has been a gripe of mine for some time, and I think the profit motive is in direct conflict with providing quality, life-saving healthcare to patients in the United States. I’ve needed medicine before that had to be pre-authorized and wound up not getting it because it was too much of a hassle for the doctor. So I suffered because the insurance giants want to make a nice profit.
Have any readers out there had a similar experience? What did you do about it? I’d be interested in hearing your thoughts.
Some healthcare professionals left some pretty interesting thoughts of their own where the cartoon is posted on Physician’s Practice.
