Consumers are best placed to prevent and monitor disease and should be able to buy diagnostic services in a competitive environment where prices can follow supply/demand dynamics.
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I am actually for this. How often do you wait for hours in a clinic, and then pay, just to be referred for testing? Such a rip off and torture, when you already feel bad. If you go to the emergency room, you get it all in one place, however tbe process is equally torturous, with waiting under most uncomfortable conditions, sometimes the whole.day or night. But then, have you ever seen the price, for an MRI, for example? I believe it is 15,000 or.more!
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Yes agree, the cost to consumers is high, but if the government fosters competition in this area, that would bring the cost down for consumers. The reason the cost is high tidy is because these services are typically paid for by insurance companies which negotiate bilateral/secret agreements with the diagnostic companies. If these products or services were provided in a competitive environment, the cost would drop substantially.
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This already exists.
Only for a limited set of lab work and pricing is still too high. If this could be expanded to include any bloodwork “a la carte” and imaging (ultrasound, MRI, scans etc) and competitive tension was created to reduce price, it would be great.
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It does include blood work ala cart. There are some things people need to have professional guidance on or there would be no reason for anyone to get an education in healthcare. You can’t let people schedule diaganositc tests such as MRIs etc on their own because they would over run the system and prevent those who absolutely must have them from getting them in a timely manner. Diagnostic tests like MRI’s require very expensive equipment and require a specific time block to be scheduled for use. It can only be used by one person at a time. Unlike a blood test for example that takes less equipment and time. It would not be doable to allow just anyone to schedule diagnostic tests such as MRIs both for the expense of the equipment wear and tear and for the scheduling of doing the test. Google is not a good doctor. There is a reason that people go to and pay doctors. People who try to self diagnose and treat themselves end up in dangerous situations that can lead to their death because they refused to seek the proper care in a timely manner. If someone waits too long to go to the doctor when they have cancer for example they put themselves in the position of being at a later stage which will likely end up in their death. There are reasons that healthcare providers pay a large amount of money and time getting an education. And that is protective to the public as if limiting what the public can do without that help as noted in the example above. The reason that healthcare providers also should not treat anyone when they are half way through their education is because they have half the information and do not have the experience. Medical care is much more complicated than people want to recongize. The body is an amazing and intergral system.
I am not proposing self treatment… doctors exist to treat patients. What I am proposing is consumer diagnostics. Current diagnostics guidelines restrict the amount of diagnostics that doctors can prescribe for cost considerations. However, if consumers were able to self purchase diagnostics/imaging then the likelihood of finding disease at an earlier stage would increase substantially. Imaging equipment is expensive but higher self pay volumes can bring the cost of these services down. Just like lab equipment is expensive, so is imaging equipment. Just like labs can be offered to consumers today, so can imaging. There is a company called Prenuvo that is offering whole body MRI scans to self pay consumers today. The cost is prohibitive but if there were many more of these, the cost would come down. A new market would be created and there would be many more clinics doing this. The idea is to find disease earlier when it is more easily treatable. Your example about cancer is exactly why imo diagnostic services should be offered to consumers on a self pay basis. Doctors will never prescribe regular ultrasounds or MRIs because these would be too costly to the US Healthcare system, but if you were able to do these on a self pay basis and the cost was lower, you would be able to detect disease much earlier than on a doctor’s or insurance company’s schedule. And this would help reduce the rate of late stage cancers that are discovered too late or because people don’t test often enough.
What makes you conclude that doctors have to limit what they prescribe? What makes you conclude that this would be too costly? Are you talking about the Insurance Industry not paying for it? Doctors can prescribe as many diagnostic tests that are warranted for a patient. They don’t over prescribe. There are also some things that cannot be prescribed too often as they do have risks and side effects such as X-rays and more invasive diagnostic tests. If people want to find conditions or processes early or want to stay healthy they can. They need to use a Functional or Integrative or Internal Medicine Chiropractic Physician and/or Naturopathic Doctor. Just like any provider some are very good and others are average. Not everyone practices the same so these are specific types of providers in those specialties. But that is exactly what they do for people. And it is cash based because insurance will not pay for preventative/wellness care or holistic care. There is also an Integrative Cancer treating facility. It is cash based because they are treating beyond what the traditional model treats. It is used in conjunction with the traditional model no instead of the model.
A doctor is going to need to read any diagnostic imaging results also. An MRI has to be read and that takes training. In addition, not everyone can have an MRI because it is magentic so no metals inside the body for example. There is also concern that too many MRIs may cause small deposits of gadolinium and have a cumulative effect. There are reasons that healthcare providers are involved in prescribing. This is just one example. Each type of diagnostic test will have a different assessment of use.