Numero Uno

MWelcome to the very first Daily Wood Rant. Today's rant will focus on the subject of Health Management Organizations. As I recently found out my Mother has Cancer, I have many opinions on this subject. Also my employment at Kaiser Permanente has given me a few insights into such a company.

First off I'd like to say this, these are my opinions, not always facts. So please take them accordingly. Now thats out of the way I can begin.

While the idea of an HMO is a very good one, almost bordering on socialism ideas, it application is something else entirely. The first big problem I have with HMO s is the need for review before acceptance of a claim or treatment. If someone is sick, they are sick. Period. Waiting around for some third party to assess whether or not something is needed (IOW will this cost more than what we are collecting in dues) can and does put those who are most at risk, at risk even more. To wait for an independent analysis of results can cause severe results in the health of a patient. It would make much more sense to automatically approve of treatments, and assess them as they go, and if it is found a person did not need a treatment, well, there are 2 people who could be at fault. The Doctor, or the patient. A treatment should never be denied because of business reason, for a persons life is not a business. It is life, the most Sacred thing ( not in a strictly religious sense) a person has. Not something to be thrown away simply because it might cost to much right now. I mean how do they plan on continuing to do business if all their members die from lack of caring?

Additionally, the idea of preventative medicine, while idealistic in the extreme, does not constitute a sound look at medicine. To diagnose someone, you need to know what it wrong, not what the symptoms are. To much in todays medicine do we practice the methods of drugging people and treating their symptoms, without ever addressing the cause of those symptoms. To treat a malady one needs to understand that which ales a person. To do that one needs to talk to the patient, discuss possibilities for exposure(in the case of a transmittable disease) or causes. Also we don't fully understand the Human body yet, so using drugs that would otherwise be highly illegal, we get everyone high till they cant feel anything anymore. What kind of life is that.