Probably not very often since you usually need a referral from a physician to see a specialist, and in most cases, whatever tests he's done are forwarded to the doctor you're being referred to.
It’s also about doctors ordering more tests than are absolutely necessary to cover their butts against possible lawsuits. Again, tort reform would go a long way toward solving that problem.
“To be honest about it, he is talking about redunant testing because doctor #2 can’t see the tests doctor #1 did so he orders it redone.”
If that was his specific point, then it’s disingenuous; surely most of the repeating of tests is done as defensive medicine. He’s stipulated a relatively minor class of actions, a class that no one would disagree has questionable justification, but implied that it would create huge cost savings when in all likelihood, it won’t.
So it’s a empty point.
Just because Dr Obama,oh, he is not a physician?, made that statement, then you can see exactly where government run health care is going. You are going to die and it will be okay with the government. You will consume less resources and occupy less space. God help us all. I believe we are doomed
To be honest about it, he is talking about redunant testing because doctor #2 can’t see the tests doctor #1 did so he orders it redone.
_______________________
And if a patient agrees to this, it’s the patient’s fault - not mine. Anyone with half a brain should ask to have the records and/or films sent over, faxed over, sent by computer, sent via overnight delivery OR the patient can pick them up him/herself and take the records into the doctor personally. If he is referring to Medicare problems, well, just who is in charge of THAT?
Think about how many lazy, apathetic Americans we have who believe everything should be handed to them on a silver platter. If someone else is picking up the tab, they aren’t going to care how many times they get tested. I, on the other hand, care - because I have to pay for some of it.
Why not? They're your tests; why can't you pick them up and take them to another doctor? Case in point: I had a shoulder xray done. My PCP recommended an orthopedic oncologist because of something the radiologist saw. I went to the clinic that did the xray, asked for and received a DVD with the pictures and the radiologist's report and transported them to the specialist. Simple.
I can say from first hand experience that it does happen, and is not as rare as some may think. I've seen people come into an ER, and because they don't know if they had an CT scan (try a confused elderly person), or even that they may have had the test but you can't get at the results, then the test is repeated.
“To be honest about it, he is talking about redunant testing because doctor #2 can’t see the tests doctor #1 did so he orders it redone. I don’t know how often that is actually done, especially for big things like MRIs. “
It doesn’t happen..real insurance policies will not pay for the duplicate test. Mine won’t. Obamma was lying.
And another thing about limiting tests and pigeon holing everyone. Practicing medicine is an art not a science. They need the ability to ask for tests because they really have not a clue as to what is wrong with you with out them.
OK, here’s a scenario: Dr #1 orders a x-ray of my spine. I have scoliosis. Fine.
Dr # 2 orders another x-ray from a different angle. Discovers that my scoliosis comes from an unknown injury. Fine.
Dr # 3 orders a “special” x-ray at several weird angles. Discovers that I have scoliosis from a 30 foot fall that I took when I was a kid. I had crushed 5 vertebrae.
Which one of them made me “well”? None of them. But the last one used clues from the first two to bring me relief.
It took dozens of random tests from a dozen doctors to figure out my autoimmune peripheral neuropathy. The last doctor redid a test from a previous neurologist because (and I quote), “I don’t trust that he did it right. You have no idea how many times I redo the EMG and find out that the last doc botched it. I never rely on anyone but me. *I* read my x-rays, MRI’s and EMG’s. Nobody else.”
Oh, and the last doc wouldn’t have used the old MRI anyway because it was more than 6 months old and too much changes in that time.
Doctors are not stupid. If they need to see something from a slightly different angle, then they do. If they need to redo a test because they might see something that the last test missed, they do.
Running multiple tests isn’t always a waste.
And the government has no business making that determination.