If we didn't word our narratives just right, the government wouldn't pay.

A simple universal magnetic card swiped with the data of services is all that would be needed in single payer.

Your critcism should be attributed more to private insurance than government's.

But  it is not, since it was part 2 of a 2 part critique.  There is a way to take all that profit and lawyer fees out of the picture. The Old USSR did it, China does it, North Korea does it.  is that what you really want?

One would think, but the government doesn't work that way. For example, in one service I worked, if the patient was given oxygen, we had to write, "oxygen administered for patient's shortness of breath." If we wrote, "Patient had shortness of breath, so we gave him oxygen" medicare wouldn't pay. In the other service we didn't have to write out our reasoning for giving oxygen if it was to treat the chief complaint. In actuality, since administering oxygen is standard medical procedure for patients with shortness of breath, the only thing you would have to justify is if you decided not to administer it.

In othe words, nothing about the government requirement were based on medical standards or even logic. They were completely arbitrary requirements that did nothing more than increase the cost of doing business... and justify some government workers' jobs. Jobs that obviously don't need to exist, since they serve no real purpose.

The devil is always in the details. There is a medication that is the drug of choice for a particular type of infectious colitis, although it was never submitted to the FDA for approval for use in that particular condition. It was already approved for use for other conditions & there was no particular incentive for the company to conduct an expensive trial to prove its effectiveness for this condition when practical experience had already confirmed it.

If you are in the hospital & covered by Medicare Part A, the drug is readily available, covered & used routinely. If you try to get Medicare Part D approval for the same drug for the same condition as an outpatient, it is denied because the Part D legislation specifically forbids payment for any drug for any use not specifically approved by the FDA. Never mind that it is the drug of choice & the accepted medical standard of care.

Multiply that by a few thousand drugs, a few thousand procedure codes & some 200,000 diagnosis codes & the opportunities for such Wonderland silliness are infinite.

Governments. Can't live without them, can't satisfy their intense need for paper.

You also may remember how "pork" works: just as an example, Bristo-Myers is based in New Jersey, which has Congressmen and a couple of Senators. You get the picture.

Yes, and why the maritime Commission is located in WVa. Which has a Very LARGE coast I have been told.

  

Is this any way to treat an "honorable" senior citizen?

For dr. guy's wallet.

For dr. guy's wallet.

I think it belongs on a postage stamp.

I think it belongs on a postage stamp

Now that's really funny!!

btw, where did your green faces go?

btw, where did your green faces go?

They dont show up now.  Smileys from JU show up as green in the forums before, but not they just dont show up.  I guess that is one way to "fix" the bugs.  Guess we will have to wait for JUII to see what is available.