The Changing Faces of American Health Care - Time Out #496

Medical advertising has absolutely exploded through the roof. As consumers, we are overpowered by it when we're watching and/or listening to any electronic device or reading anything in print. I have not actually seen statistics, but would be willing to wager, medical-type advertising composes at least 10-percent of all commercial advertising. 

Just why are we blasted with so much stuff about medical products and services? Simply stated, because the advertising works, and sells whatever they are hawking to the general public. Wow!

What all these glitzy, polished, highly suggestive advertisements don't tell us, readers in Our Town and far beyond, is just how incredibly expensive $$$ these medical products/services are to purchase. And, of course, please remember SOMEONE is paying for them. If it is the individual patient's responsibility, it may be a BIG financial effort to have the money to afford their unbelievable costs. If the patient relies on their health insurance to cover the huge costs, the insurance company frequently throws their roadblock PA (Prior Authorization) requirements in front of the patient. What this PA creates for the medical provider is incredibly time consuming, frustrating and anger-producing, suffered by patients and providers. These PAs are there for one reason in my humble opinion as a medical provider since 1978. The insurance carriers hope their delay tactics will frustrate the patient long enough, the patient will pay for the medical product or services him or herself. Or the medical provider will recommend a cheaper product/service, thus saving the insurance company money. This ploy represents the insurance company's attempt to dictate how to practice medicine.

So, to summarize, today's marketing and advertising avalanche of medical information presented 24/7 to us, please always remember "buyer (patient/consumer) beware". Those products/services advertised cost someone (?) thousands of dollars, and probably are not meant for you.  You will probably be told that fact when you "Ask your doctor" as the ads promote. I have told my patients for almost half a century, "Medicine isn't simply black and white" like the media represents it. In fact, I tell folks, "Medicine is 90-percent gray" regarding definite answers. I finish by telling them, "That's why it is called the practice of medicine".