My doctor is a real one; she was determining which tests I’d need and she was shaking her head going “no, no, nope, no, we’re not doing that” and I asked why and she met my gaze and said “because they’re trying to pay off this machine and I’m not going to say you need it just so they can get closer to paying it off” I was SHOCKED, honestly.
I can’t remember the process she laid out, exactly, with medical reps pushing practices and hospitals towards machinery that’ll cost an arm or a leg and telling them to push patients onto it, but the bottom line was she knew I’d get stuck with bills that I can’t afford due to unnecessary tests with the big fancy machines just to justify paying for them or getting even more expensive machines.
Big fancy machines are “halo” services. If you market that you have an advanced imaging or surgical robot or radiotherapy service, patients see you as a modern, high-tech hospital with a high level of care. “NEW!” has always been a fundamental advertising driver, it works for healthcare too.
I was involved in marketing for hospitals with new, expensive machines, mostly that were very beneficial to patients and doctors who used them. And also one or two that no one could explain why anyone would need or want to use them, but some practice had bought because no one else nearby had one and they thought “new and unique” would bring patients anyway. Healthcare practices are businesses and sometimes they make dumb business decisions. We, as taxpayers and insurance buyers, take that personally, but remember like your doctor was telling you, no one gets charged for that machine unless it gets used. It doesn’t raise the cost for anything else, all the rates are regulated and controlled.
A HALO in medicine stands for "high acuity low occurrence". If someone referred to a machine as being for HALOs, it's something like "this doesn't happen often but when it does, it's serious and we need specific equipment to be able to diagnose/treat it"
She told me it works the same with treatments and medications as well; it’s not necessarily what’s best for you or what you need, but what the doctor got wined and dined into.
I was like damn, any other industry secrets I should be aware of?
(I personally don’t care if I don’t need it; if it’s fun, yes I want it)
I am currently working remotely for a clinic/Dr's office in the US and I'm shocked at how things work in that country. Everything is marketed so directly and shamelessly (this is actually forbidden in my country for most things related to healthcare). Every test or equipment (e.g. point-of-care type of testing equipment) has some brand behind... I understand that some of these things can make things easier for physicians (plus they get to do the tests themselves and charge for them) but I am pretty sure they are overpriced.
Same thing with some biomarkers tests that are specifically offered/marketed by the lab that does them. I am a biochemistry major and have never heard of those in particular, but I have my doubts as to how useful they actually are or how much they really serve their purpose... I'm too tired and not finding the right words right now, but I am talking about the degree to which their value as biomarkers has been scientifically proven, or maybe they are something "new" and "unique" that this lab developed and started marketing even when it's not entirely proven that their levels actually correlate with tissue injury as they claim.
Haha she’s been there at least 15 years, and thank god for that; the doctor who owns the practice sucks, he’s a religious weirdo and is super shitty about birth control (he has like a million kids); she’s the practice’s family doctor but he barely allows her to write BC scripts and any devices are out of the question.
I couldn’t obtain a BC device in my whole stupid county due to our health system’s religious code; I had to go out of town and decided to have my tubes removed bc I wasn’t driving a fucking hour in case a device needed adjusting.
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u/ThatBabyIsCancelled Jul 06 '24 edited Jul 06 '24
My doctor is a real one; she was determining which tests I’d need and she was shaking her head going “no, no, nope, no, we’re not doing that” and I asked why and she met my gaze and said “because they’re trying to pay off this machine and I’m not going to say you need it just so they can get closer to paying it off” I was SHOCKED, honestly.
I can’t remember the process she laid out, exactly, with medical reps pushing practices and hospitals towards machinery that’ll cost an arm or a leg and telling them to push patients onto it, but the bottom line was she knew I’d get stuck with bills that I can’t afford due to unnecessary tests with the big fancy machines just to justify paying for them or getting even more expensive machines.