Skip to content
  • About
  • Contact
  • Contribute
  • Book
  • Careers
  • Podcast
  • Recommended
  • Speaking
  • All
  • Physician
  • Practice
  • Policy
  • Finance
  • Conditions
  • .edu
  • Patient
  • Meds
  • Tech
  • Social
  • Video
    • All
    • Physician
    • Practice
    • Policy
    • Finance
    • Conditions
    • .edu
    • Patient
    • Meds
    • Tech
    • Social
    • Video
    • About
    • Contact
    • Contribute
    • Book
    • Careers
    • Podcast
    • Recommended
    • Speaking

Is health care just legal human trafficking?

Debra Blaine, MD
Policy
January 2, 2020
Share
Tweet
Share

The standard business model around which our world revolves has no place in the “business” of human life, which is what the commercialized industry of health care has become. To be the most successful, businesses work to optimize profits by minimizing their operating costs, which include material resources and all the steps involved in distributing their product. This business model, in some form, is applied universally from the manufacturing and marketing of microchips, televisions, and Halloween candy to farming harvests and consulting firms. But it is not meant to be applied to human life.

If the microchip is faulty and not performing as expected, the company scraps it and redesigns a better one. If it is simply a bad batch that was produced, that batch is recalled, and the next lot number is sent in its place. The product version is always expendable for the good of the company. Businesses focus on their profit margins, and their products are only a means to that end.

That game cannot be played with human life. There is no monetary value that can ethically be applied to a human being, and humans frequently “do not perform as expected.” Sometimes this may be because the physician did not offer the most up-to-date, cost-effective treatment, but sometimes it is because the patient was non-compliant, and even more frequently, it is because human life is not neat and tidy like microchips and televisions.

Too often, the venture capitalists who own and manage health insurance companies, hospital systems, and pharmaceutical companies, have neither knowledge nor prurient interest in human physiology and psychology, and yet, they create the algorithms by which care is provided.

Our current system treats medicine as a commodity, not as an essential service. We the people are preyed upon by tycoons who wish to sell their services, and for whom quality control is not a moral directive but a necessary expense. There is no acknowledgment of the sanctity of human life, and caring for humans has become equivalent to manufacturing microchips. I keep asking myself: how can we adjust our course?

An important first step would be to equalize reimbursements from insurers and to allow any qualified physician to be able to collect from their patient’s insurance company for services rendered. The decreased “negotiating power” of small group practices has been a catalyst in forcing physicians to buy into corporate systems; currently, a service performed by a cardiologist in a solo practice earns him a fraction of the reimbursement provided to a cardiologist for the same service in a large group practice. This discriminatory nature of insurance companies has shepherded physicians into large corporate systems in order to survive because the individual doctors cannot afford to support their practices on the remittances they receive. This, in turn, has impelled patients to leave doctors who have known them for years and who understand their health nuances.

Complex administrative requirements have been artificially increased to satisfy companies that have no understanding of what it really means to care for human beings, and these have necessitated hiring additional staff just to code and submit records for payments. This further constitutes a financial burden on a small or solo practice.

If each physician were to receive the same payment for the same service and needed to pay salaries only to those competent individuals who contribute to the quality treatment of patients, large corporate structures would not be able to force physicians to maintain that company’s standards of high levels of “productivity” (i.e., volume of patients per day), nor would doctors be judged and penalized by surveys in which the patient may downgrade the practice because an inappropriate antibiotic was correctly not prescribed for a cold, or the coffee creamer selection in the waiting room was not to a patient’s liking. Patients would likewise be able to stay with the doctor who knows them well and reestablish long-term relationships built on trust, camaraderie, and mutual respect.

When corporate medicine, in true adherence to the business model, sends “customer satisfaction surveys” to patients, the corporation’s consumers are invited to criticize the care they receive, and this shifts the priority of treatment from healing the patient to pleasing them instead. And all the while, the whip is being flogged on the doctor to see more patients, code more procedures, and move patients along more quickly. All to the ultimate goal of increased revenue. Is it any wonder that physicians are experiencing burnout and depression, and have the highest rate of suicide per capita than any other profession in the U.S.?

I fear that if we do not address these issues at their roots, we will soon no longer be able to expect anyone to invest 11 to 14 years after high school and a half to three-quarters of a million dollars training to become a physician. In their place, we will have physician assistants and nurse practitioners exclusively, with no access to an experienced doctor for consultation; good people but with markedly less experience, training, and acumen. America will still have the “product” of excellent medicine without the means to “distribute” it. Thus, ultimately, the current business model, as applied to health, will fail. But how many humans will have to die or suffer unnecessary morbidity first?

It is not that we do not have the financial resources to provide appropriate care; they are just being rerouted into the pockets of large corporate holders. Human life is being forfeited for the sake of the profit margin, and it is being done “legally.” How much is it worth to save a life? How is this not human trafficking?

Debra Blaine is a family physician and author of Code Blue: The Other End of the Stethoscope. She can be reached at her self-titled site, Debra Blaine.

Image credit: Shutterstock.com 

ADVERTISEMENT

Prev

Physicians are suffering, and they need help

January 1, 2020 Kevin 5
…
Next

Stop cutting patients off their prescribed benzodiazepines

January 2, 2020 Kevin 17
…

Tagged as: Public Health & Policy

Post navigation

< Previous Post
Physicians are suffering, and they need help
Next Post >
Stop cutting patients off their prescribed benzodiazepines

ADVERTISEMENT

Related Posts

  • How social media can help or hurt your health care career

    Health eCareers
  • Why health care replaced physician care

    Michael Weiss, MD
  • If health care is a right, so should having legal insurance

    Thomas D. Guastavino, MD
  • Health care is not a service commodity

    Peter Spence, MD, MBA
  • Turn physicians into powerful health care influencers

    Kevin Pho, MD
  • Why the health care industry must prioritize health equity

    George T. Mathew, MD, MBA

More in Policy

  • Unused IV catheters cost U.S. hospitals billions

    Piyush Pillarisetti
  • Why your health care dashboard isn’t working and how to fix it

    Dave Cummings, RN
  • Nuclear verdicts and rising costs: How inflation is reshaping medical malpractice claims

    Robert E. White, Jr. & The Doctors Company
  • How new loan caps could destroy diversity in medical education

    Caleb Andrus-Gazyeva
  • Why transplant equity requires more than access

    Zamra Amjid, DHSc, MHA
  • Ideology, not evidence, fuels the anti-trans agenda

    Andie Riffer, PhD and Shawn E. Parra, LCSW, MSW
  • Most Popular

  • Past Week

    • The human case for preserving the nipple after mastectomy

      Thomas Amburn, MD | Conditions
    • Nuclear verdicts and rising costs: How inflation is reshaping medical malpractice claims

      Robert E. White, Jr. & The Doctors Company | Policy
    • IMGs are the future of U.S. primary care

      Adam Brandon Bondoc, MD | Physician
    • Why I left the clinic to lead health care from the inside

      Vandana Maurya, MHA | Conditions
    • How doctors can think like CEOs [PODCAST]

      The Podcast by KevinMD | Podcast
    • A surgeon’s testimony, probation, and resignation from a professional society

      Stephen M. Cohen, MD, MBA | Physician
  • Past 6 Months

    • Health equity in Inland Southern California requires urgent action

      Vishruth Nagam | Policy
    • How restrictive opioid policies worsen the crisis

      Kayvan Haddadan, MD | Physician
    • Why primary care needs better dermatology training

      Alex Siauw | Conditions
    • Why pain doctors face unfair scrutiny and harsh penalties in California

      Kayvan Haddadan, MD | Physician
    • How a doctor defied a hurricane to save a life

      Dharam Persaud-Sharma, MD, PhD | Physician
    • What street medicine taught me about healing

      Alina Kang | Education
  • Recent Posts

    • Affordable postpartum hemorrhage solutions every OB/GYN can use worldwide [PODCAST]

      The Podcast by KevinMD | Podcast
    • When cancer costs too much: Why financial toxicity deserves a place in clinical conversations

      Yousuf Zafar, MD | Physician
    • Psychiatrist tests ketogenic diet for mental health benefits

      Zane Kaleem, MD | Conditions
    • The hidden rewards of a primary care career

      Jerina Gani, MD, MPH | Physician
    • Why physicians should not be their own financial planner

      Michelle Neiswender, CFP | Finance
    • Why doctors regret specialty choices in their 30s

      Jeremiah J. Whittington, MD | Physician

Subscribe to KevinMD and never miss a story!

Get free updates delivered free to your inbox.


Find jobs at
Careers by KevinMD.com

Search thousands of physician, PA, NP, and CRNA jobs now.

Learn more

View 1 Comments >

Founded in 2004 by Kevin Pho, MD, KevinMD.com is the web’s leading platform where physicians, advanced practitioners, nurses, medical students, and patients share their insight and tell their stories.

Social

  • Like on Facebook
  • Follow on Twitter
  • Connect on Linkedin
  • Subscribe on Youtube
  • Instagram

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

  • Most Popular

  • Past Week

    • The human case for preserving the nipple after mastectomy

      Thomas Amburn, MD | Conditions
    • Nuclear verdicts and rising costs: How inflation is reshaping medical malpractice claims

      Robert E. White, Jr. & The Doctors Company | Policy
    • IMGs are the future of U.S. primary care

      Adam Brandon Bondoc, MD | Physician
    • Why I left the clinic to lead health care from the inside

      Vandana Maurya, MHA | Conditions
    • How doctors can think like CEOs [PODCAST]

      The Podcast by KevinMD | Podcast
    • A surgeon’s testimony, probation, and resignation from a professional society

      Stephen M. Cohen, MD, MBA | Physician
  • Past 6 Months

    • Health equity in Inland Southern California requires urgent action

      Vishruth Nagam | Policy
    • How restrictive opioid policies worsen the crisis

      Kayvan Haddadan, MD | Physician
    • Why primary care needs better dermatology training

      Alex Siauw | Conditions
    • Why pain doctors face unfair scrutiny and harsh penalties in California

      Kayvan Haddadan, MD | Physician
    • How a doctor defied a hurricane to save a life

      Dharam Persaud-Sharma, MD, PhD | Physician
    • What street medicine taught me about healing

      Alina Kang | Education
  • Recent Posts

    • Affordable postpartum hemorrhage solutions every OB/GYN can use worldwide [PODCAST]

      The Podcast by KevinMD | Podcast
    • When cancer costs too much: Why financial toxicity deserves a place in clinical conversations

      Yousuf Zafar, MD | Physician
    • Psychiatrist tests ketogenic diet for mental health benefits

      Zane Kaleem, MD | Conditions
    • The hidden rewards of a primary care career

      Jerina Gani, MD, MPH | Physician
    • Why physicians should not be their own financial planner

      Michelle Neiswender, CFP | Finance
    • Why doctors regret specialty choices in their 30s

      Jeremiah J. Whittington, MD | Physician

MedPage Today Professional

An Everyday Health Property Medpage Today
  • Terms of Use | Disclaimer
  • Privacy Policy
  • DMCA Policy
All Content © KevinMD, LLC
Site by Outthink Group

Is health care just legal human trafficking?
1 comments

Comments are moderated before they are published. Please read the comment policy.

Loading Comments...