I have been working for almost three months now and I am already getting restless, drained and can't wait to leave this system.
I currently work in an orthopedic office specializing mostly in spine orthopedics and worker's compensation claims. How is it, you ask? I would rather go back to the craziness of PA school than work here. That says A LOT about how much I don't like this job.
I'm not generally a picky person, ortho was never my first choice but I took it anyway. Hell, I'm not a picky person at all I took the darn job in Bakersfield!! Don't get me wrong, I'm grateful I have a job during these hard economic times, but working for this system is exhausting.
I never knew how broken and inefficient our worker's compensation system is until I started working here. The idea of it sounds good, but the reality is far from it. Why? well, to start we have to get authorizations for pretty much everything in worker's comp: xrays, MRIs, medications, therapies, lab tests, referrals to other specialties, and of course the expensive procedures.
Countless times I tell my patients, "your insurance company is denying it," or " we haven't heard anything from your insurance yet"; I have seen patients wait for longer than a year to get back surgeries approved, or even a simple, relatively cheap treatment like physical therapy. I have seen real, legitimate patients suffer because they can't get treatment through worker's comp, and they either don't have private insurance or their private insurance won't touch their complaint since it's worker's comp. These patients are stuck; getting by daily with pain, unable to function, unable to live life to the fullest. Imagine living day in and day out in pain, no work and unable to do most of anything. That is a terrible life.
Then I get stacks of denial letters. These denial letters are pages long, typed in small fonts and in such a way that you don't even want to read it. The reason of the denial usually is never straight forward; they list all kinds of guidelines they used, and you have to search for the actual sentences that say the specific reason they deny a request. Sometimes they don't even exist. Sometimes the reason is beyond ridiculous. It's like they purposely try to frustrate you when you open that letter.
But not all the fault lies on the insurance company. The system is broken, because it's also being taken advantage of by the patients. I have also seen patients claiming heart attack, diabetes and hypertension through their worker's comp. I mean, that's stretching it a bit, don't you think? I have seen people lie and fake pain to get painkillers, because lots of times we provide meds in house, not through prescriptions.
Between the denial of treatments, people claiming diabetes caused by their work injury, people lying to get painkillers, delay of treatments and diagnostic testings, and 80 work comp patients a day, I finally read what is between the lines: MONEY. Money talks, money controls what can and can't be done, and money drives the huge volume of worker's comp claims we get. It is sickening, but it is reality.
I went to PA school because I want to do something to help people. I know you think, "that's what every medical professional say, but they really go into it because of the money"; well the money's good but that is not all the reason. I actually do want to help and do something productive to improve people's lives.
I have never felt so frustrated and so useless in my job (well, I've only worked for 3 months now, but still...). I missed my clinical training days as a student in family medicine, in private practices and urgent care, where at least I still felt like I did something productive and helped my patients. But nowadays, medicine has become more and more controlled by money and medical treatments are getting harder to come by...
“When morality comes up against profit, it is seldom that profit loses.”
― Shirley Chisholm
~ josie
