An Unncessary Medical Test?

Throughout the past week, nearly every local news show and every twenty-four hour news channel has reported that various government leaders feel that health care reform could include legislation to save on medical expenses by preventing unnecessary medical testing that is alleging currently occurring in the health care field. But, what medical test is unnecessary? And, who shall decide? Will it be the patient? The doctor? The insurance company? Or, will it be a group of strangers who know neither the patient nor the situation?

One can assume that medical testing is much like testing in other fields. The tests are used to either eliminate potential findings or to confirm suspected theories. Physicians are faced with a myriad of possible diagnoses for any given set of symptoms reported by a patient, and tests are conducted to support or deny a doctor’s suspicions. Doctors are only human and fallible; with this in mind, is there really any such thing as an unnecessary medical test?

Patients, too, are human, and usually non-medical professionals. Symptoms not recognized as being symptoms, as being important, may go unreported to the physician, an error that could result in a misdiagnosis. As a patient, if you were given the choice of purchasing a test that could substantiate your physician’s diagnosis, would you buy it? Or, would you prefer to consider it an unnecessary expense and take a leap of faith, hoping that out of the many possible diagnoses it may be the doctor guessed well?

In an attempt to cut medical expenses, reducing medical testing may sound like a possibility. Yet, increasing medical testing may actually improve patient care and, ultimately, reduce overall health care costs.

Have you ever had this experience: After dealing with a few symptoms, attempting to self-diagnose and self-medicate with over-the-counter products, you finally give in and make an appointment with the doctor. If your symptoms are serious, you may be seen as a walk-in; if you feel you can wait, it may be a week or two before your appointment date arrives.

After sitting in the cold waiting room for a while, sometimes an hour or more, you are ushered back to an examination room where your temperature, pulse, and blood pressure are checked by a nurse; then you are left alone to continue to wait. Finally, you hear a rustle of papers just outside the door and the doctor enters the room.

The doctor is polite and kind, but he (or she) is busy, and there are other patients waiting to see him. You greet the physician and inform him of the list of symptoms that you’ve noticed and feel are important enough to be reported to him. If you’ve had symptoms that you don’t realize are related to the problem, they go unreported. The doctor asks you a few questions, writes something quickly on a script, tears the paper from its book, and hands it to you. “Take this,” the doctor says. “And, if it doesn’t work, come back.” Then, you look at your watch and realize that the entire visit took approximately five minutes, and no medical tests are conducted.

If you’re lucky, you have health insurance, and you stop at the front desk to pay the co-pay before leaving. Then, you head to the pharmacy, and pay another co-pay for the prescription. But, remember, the insurance company is also paying a hefty expense for both the visit and the medication.

Within a few weeks, your symptoms have continued or worsened, and you call to make another appointment with the doctor. Again, the same procedure of waiting and receiving a prescription without medical testing is conducted, co-pays are paid by the patient at the doctor’s office and the pharmacy, and the health insurance company pays for yet another visit and another pharmaceutical. After another couple of weeks without improvement, yet a third round of this dance is performed. And, so it continues.

Every day, scenarios similar to this are played out, an expensive circle that involves patients not receiving thorough care, and patients and insurance companies paying out money. Although medical testing will not guarantee that this scenario will never occur, it could prevent many episodes.

If more medical tests are performed, patients and doctors can be reassured that a suspected diagnosis and the treatment plan decided upon are correct. This, in turn, will not only increase the quality of medical care provided to the patient, but it can also decrease doctor liability and decrease the amount of money spent by patients and insurance companies on unnecessary repeat visits and inappropriate prescriptions. With these changes, patient-doctor trust should increase and malpractice charges should decrease, which could ultimately result in across-the-board medical savings.

The patients of America have a voice, and a right to speak up in regards to their own medical care. And, as Americans, we have the right to telephone, mail, or e-mail our representatives and let them know our opinion on any issue we feel is of importance. Few issues are as important to each individual as their personal health. So, the question is put forth to each of us. When it comes to saving on health care expenses, do we wish to save on health care by eliminating what some believe are unnecessary medical tests?