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Doctors schedules are already tight as it is and I’m not sure what benefit there is to the doctor to spend the precious extra minutes looking to see whether the
by elliekelly 7y ago
Doctors schedules are already tight as it is and I’m not sure what benefit there is to the doctor to spend the precious extra minutes looking to see whether they might be able to save their patients some money before prescribing a drug.
- jchw 7y agoThat is a different point to be made, and would apply even if the tool worked 100% of the time.
- paganel 7y agoBecause by saving the patient that sum of money said patient will maybe have enough funds to come visit said doctor for a second time (or a 3rd, or a 4th), instead of postponing the visit for financial reasons. In other words, if a doctor prescribes me a $1000 medicine instead of a $500 one, and a visit to said doctor costs $500, I might not visit him a second time because I've already paid $1000 for the medicine and I don't have enough money for my health anymore. Not visiting your doctor when you need it (for whatever reasons) is bad for the patient.
- elliekelly 7y agoThat’s not a very strong incentive. I’m not really sure that’s an incentive at all. Most doctors have more than enough appointments. Their schedules are overbooked. But even if doctors who needed more patient bookings could attract those bookings by saving patients money then logic would follow that doctors who have room in their schedule would consistently use the app from the article. Yet most doctors aren’t using it at all. So even if your premise is correct I think you’re greatly overestimating the surplus supply of doctors appointments and underestimating how steep/inelastic the demand curve is for healthcare. Mostly unrelated, is saying “surplus supply” redundant? I can’t decide.