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The Medical-Industrial Complex
A sidebar discussion developed in a recent Topic and I thought it would be interesting to discuss the concept of the “medical-industrial complex”. I did a quick search and realized that the concept and its problems has been around for decades. Here is the Google search page to start from, and the Wikipedia page. I will copy a few selections in the next post.
The reality of what is happening was realized long ago. Surgeons with their own sole proprietorship practices might not realize what it’s like to work within the larger system. Somebody mentioned Dr. Petersen in the other thread. He has written about why he chose to avoid insurance reimbursements. I will try to find those publications and post them also.
The feeling that these relationships exist has been strong enough that many many people have written about it. It’s just the reality of healthcare today.
https://www.google.com/search?q=Medical%E2%80%93industrial+complex
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medical%E2%80%93industrial_complex
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3 Replies
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Here is an interesting article showing how the passion and practice of medicine becomes industrialized. Like an actual industrial process, producing a product which can then be billed to the patient and/or their insurer.
https://revcycleintelligence.com/features/exploring-the-fundamentals-of-medical-billing-and-coding
You can see that from almost the very beginning the human patient gets converted in to a number to follow until the end, when collection happens. Pretty fascinating. The surgeons have to fit their work in to this system also.
“Medical billing and coding translate a patient encounter into the languages healthcare facilities use for claims submission and reimbursement.”
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Unfortunately, as I read through a few more articles, I realized that the term is also used for various conspiracy theories. Many of which are especially prevalent today. So it is a difficult concept for discussion.
Anyway, the potential for conflicts of interest are real, and in many cases you can see actual conflicts.
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Here is an article from 1980 –
https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJM198010233031703
Dr. Petersen’s story, if I recall correctly, was on his business web page and the site has changed.
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