http://nationalpainreport.com/treating-chronic-pain-patients-getting-more-scrutiny-8825749.html
These people would never ever get away with managing someone in pain that way unless they were on Medicaid...
Medicaid patients are given few options for pain management, but the one that states promote the most is methadone. Years ago, I took methadone, but I had no idea at the time that it was so dangerous. All I know now is that it doesn’t work for me.
Today’s pain patient needs a competent physician to listen and co create a viable diagnosis and plan. A great lawyer, political operative and media person might be just as important. Just sayin’
I guess even good doctors like Dr. Ibsen don’t really understand that all of these things take money. He tells the story of Vicky, a Medicaid patient — who I’m sure can’t afford a lawyer — and then advises all of us to have one on retainer.
It’s not the Medicaid patients that need to stand up and fight — they have a lot more to lose. It’s the middle-class patients with money who need to start fighting. Besides not having any money to fight, poor people face a lot more fear than those who can support themselves without disability. When a poor person fights, there’s a good chance they will become homeless, sooner or later.
Unfortunately, the majority of patients in this middle-class group aren’t having the same problems with access that the rest of us are having. And above what’s left of the middle-class… well, rich people have their own doctors on retainer, dontcha know?
All Things Chronic 