Quasi-Medicine

[jmj11]

In this age of dwindling reimbursements, small practices are starting to take two bad approaches to staying alive.  Number 1 is right out fraud.  Medicare just arrested a large group of physicians for billing for services never rendered.  But I wanted to discuss # 2, quasi-medicine (my name for it).

 

 

Yesterday I saw two different patients who had seen MDs who have moved into cash-only miracle clinics.  One was a "metabolism" clinic.  This is a family doc who has written books about the real cause of obesity is not too much food or too little exercise, but a broken metabolism by modern life.  She claims to have a 100% cure rate for obesity by getting patients to exercise less and eat more (multiple snacks plus meals rich in carbs and protein).  She “reboots the metabolism by magic vitamin mixtures that she sells based on lab tests, and prescribing metformin and large doses of thyroid meds. She got my attention because she also claims to have a 100% cure rate for migraine, arthritis, dementia, fatigue, sleep problems . . . and the list goes on and on, because the “root cause” is a broken metabolism.

 

 

I know we were pretty hard on naturopaths a few weeks ago, but now I see the same magical thinking (and ear tickling-telling the patients what they want to hear) by MDs.

 

 

I feel the crunch of falling reimbursements and have to constantly think of ways to stay in business, but neither of these options would be on my radar nor are good for medicine.

 

[True Anomaly]

The difference I see is that, from my perspective, naturopaths actually believe in what they are doing.  So if it's fraud, it's unintentional

 

This smacks of outright intentional fraud with no regard for patient safety or welfare

[jdenning]

Sounds like Dr. Oz....

[CAAdmission]

This is the kind of voodoo crap that MDs used to make fun of chiropractors for selling.

 

I used to work with an MD that ran a homeopathy business on the side. How can you sit through med school and then huck magic water in your spare time? The last glimmering hope for nobility in medicine is being trampled on by economic self-interest.

[SocialMedicine]

Autonomy is a fascinating concept when you apply it to scenarios such as this. If the patient wants to try vitamin B to help smoking cessation or acupuncture for chronic joint pain do they not have a right to consult with a provider of those services and make a decision to accept or refuse treatment ? But then again medicine is complex and the consumer is not always able to interpret the information so that autonomous decision is saddled with clinician, patient, and research bias etc. There needs to be some middle ground. I do not believe the ONLY options should be western biomedicine (of which I practice and use for my own healthcare needs). I think when you obtain and get licensed as a PA or MD you swore a legal and moral oath to uphold a certain scientific standard. The MD who does metabolism clinic might be in violation of that. What evidence does she use ? How does she risk harm towards patient ? The cure of dementia claim is a bit starting and will result in a law suit I am sure. 

[Guest Paula]

Not only the cure for dementia but the large doses of metformin and thyroid medications to fix the broken metabolism set the stage for a lawsuit.  

[Joelseff]

I am wondering if you become a physician assistant and specialize in surgery can tou perform surgery solo outside of the US such as a medical missionary? I know you can jump from specialty to specialty and you have to be supervised by a licensed physician.

 

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Wow way to thread jack :angry: