Where doctors go for their fountain pen fix – Houston Chronicle
Pogo was right. When we complain about the burden of insurance company paperwork and inadequate reimbursement by Medicare, we have to look at ourselves too.
Many factors drive the rising cost of health care. These include overuse of medical tests, repeat hospitalizations for chronic conditions like heart failure, excessive emergency room visits for conditions that could be treated by primary care doctors. Just as we must think about the cost of each medication we order when we sign that prescription, we should consider our personal decisions and the perception it creates in the public eye. If we want to claim the moral high ground, our personal habits must reflect the ethics we claim to practice.
Troy Fiesinger is a family doctor in Sugar Land, Texas. He is interested in health policy, care for the underserved, medical educations, social media, and reinventing health care. Any opinions expressed here are his own.
