3 ms·

Some problems solve themselves. If you're already deceased by the time the service date comes up, the provider doesn't have to do anything. That's fucked up.

bt4u 4y ago
Modern problems require modern solutions
whitemary 4y ago
The "free market" is so good at problem solving! I hope the entrepreneur who thought of this made a tremendous profit!
- drstewart 4y ago
  Imagine thinking the US health care system is anywhere near a "free market"
magicalhippo 4y ago
My dad used to say he had three piles of papers on his desk: "urgent", "very urgent" and "no longer urgent". While it's mostly not quite as bad here in Norway, it's getting there. Lots of GP's here are quitting because they've been overloaded by paperwork. Government wants more documentation on everything. Can't just trust "some random doctor" who's known the patient for decades to sign a few days of sick leave, nope, we need paper trail! My SO's GP almost started crying during one of her checkups since he was so overworked. He'd have a normal day seeing people during normal working hours, then there would be at least 5-6 hours of paperwork to do. He quit half a year later. The newly trained doctors have caught on and don't apply for open GP positions. The result is that we have a massive deficit of GPs which keeps getting worse day by day.
- bombcar 4y ago
  Death by paperwork is the symptoms of late-stage bureaucracy. In the early days of something, it's all fly-by-pants and everything is so good compared to the previous alternative that nobody cares, but as it gets more and more "finalized" the paperwork mounts more and more to "prevent" issues, because the issues the overload of paperwork causes aren't accounted for. Ten patients die because there was no doctor to see them? Nothing important. One patient sued because a doctor made a mistake that didn't even kill them? Hugely important, ten more pages of paperwork will have to be added; the paperwork won't prevent it happening again, but now it'll clearly be the doctor that is liable, not the practice/hospital/insurance company.
bookofjoe 4y ago
You must be psychic. I'll be 75 on June 8 of this year, and it occurred to me that scheduling old people for appointments a year and a half way is a frictionless way of keeping a full schedule that will only get lighter as geezers like me drop dead before we can be seen. Oh well...
- metadat 4y ago
  Not psychic at all, unfortunately! I just upvote you a lot and keep and eye out for your (nearly always thought provoking) posts. IIRC, you said in the past you're a retired M.D., is that right? If you live around the bay area, I'd love to buy you lunch sometime. You are indisputably a super interesting person, @bookofjoe! Email in profile, promise I'm pretty cool as far as humans go :p If you're not in the bay stea, would still likely to connect with you if you're open to it. Cheers good sir.
  - bookofjoe 4y ago
    Thanks for your kind words. Yes, I'm a retired neurosurgical anesthesiologist (38 years: 1977-2015). I lived in LA from 1966-1983, when I moved to Charlottesville, Virginia, where I've remained. I'm easy to connect with: bookofjoe@gmail.com When I'm not acting out on HN, I do so in these arenas: https://www.bookofjoe.com/ https://www.bookofjoe.com/ (since August 2004) https://www.youtube.com/user/bookofjoe https://www.youtube.com/user/bookofjoe (since March 2006) https://twitter.com/bookofjoe https://twitter.com/bookofjoe (since November 2006)
- bombcar 4y ago
  Reminds me of this little-known Seuss book: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHyrVyCqKwo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHyrVyCqKwo If it's not a scheduled appointment, but a "next available time" one, ask to be put on a cancellation notification if you're near the doctor's office; they get a cancellation, call you, you're there in 10 minutes kind of thing.
  - bookofjoe 4y ago
    You must also be psychic! The day after I got my "see you in the future" 2025 appointment, I woke up and saw there was a text from the doctor's office offering an earlier appointment: it said to go to the scheduling portal and follow the instructions. I thought, "huh." That was around 6 am. I mulled it over: did I even want an earlier appointment? I'm not a big fan of doctors (full disclosure: I am one). So I went about my day and finally around 1 p.m. decided it wouldn't hurt to have a look; after all, I could ignore or decline the offered new slot. No worries: when I logged on around 1 p.m., the portal said the new slot was no longer available. I wasn't sad.

bt4u 4y ago

Modern problems require modern solutions

whitemary 4y ago

The "free market" is so good at problem solving! I hope the entrepreneur who thought of this made a tremendous profit!

drstewart 4y ago
Imagine thinking the US health care system is anywhere near a "free market"

magicalhippo 4y ago

My dad used to say he had three piles of papers on his desk: "urgent", "very urgent" and "no longer urgent". While it's mostly not quite as bad here in Norway, it's getting there. Lots of GP's here are quitting because they've been overloaded by paperwork. Government wants more documentation on everything. Can't just trust "some random doctor" who's known the patient for decades to sign a few days of sick leave, nope, we need paper trail! My SO's GP almost started crying during one of her checkups since he was so overworked. He'd have a normal day seeing people during normal working hours, then there would be at least 5-6 hours of paperwork to do. He quit half a year later. The newly trained doctors have caught on and don't apply for open GP positions. The result is that we have a massive deficit of GPs which keeps getting worse day by day.

bombcar 4y ago
Death by paperwork is the symptoms of late-stage bureaucracy. In the early days of something, it's all fly-by-pants and everything is so good compared to the previous alternative that nobody cares, but as it gets more and more "finalized" the paperwork mounts more and more to "prevent" issues, because the issues the overload of paperwork causes aren't accounted for. Ten patients die because there was no doctor to see them? Nothing important. One patient sued because a doctor made a mistake that didn't even kill them? Hugely important, ten more pages of paperwork will have to be added; the paperwork won't prevent it happening again, but now it'll clearly be the doctor that is liable, not the practice/hospital/insurance company.

bookofjoe 4y ago

You must be psychic. I'll be 75 on June 8 of this year, and it occurred to me that scheduling old people for appointments a year and a half way is a frictionless way of keeping a full schedule that will only get lighter as geezers like me drop dead before we can be seen. Oh well...

metadat 4y ago
Not psychic at all, unfortunately! I just upvote you a lot and keep and eye out for your (nearly always thought provoking) posts. IIRC, you said in the past you're a retired M.D., is that right? If you live around the bay area, I'd love to buy you lunch sometime. You are indisputably a super interesting person, @bookofjoe! Email in profile, promise I'm pretty cool as far as humans go :p If you're not in the bay stea, would still likely to connect with you if you're open to it. Cheers good sir.
- bookofjoe 4y ago
  Thanks for your kind words. Yes, I'm a retired neurosurgical anesthesiologist (38 years: 1977-2015). I lived in LA from 1966-1983, when I moved to Charlottesville, Virginia, where I've remained. I'm easy to connect with: bookofjoe@gmail.com When I'm not acting out on HN, I do so in these arenas: https://www.bookofjoe.com/ https://www.bookofjoe.com/ (since August 2004) https://www.youtube.com/user/bookofjoe https://www.youtube.com/user/bookofjoe (since March 2006) https://twitter.com/bookofjoe https://twitter.com/bookofjoe (since November 2006)
bombcar 4y ago
Reminds me of this little-known Seuss book: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHyrVyCqKwo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHyrVyCqKwo If it's not a scheduled appointment, but a "next available time" one, ask to be put on a cancellation notification if you're near the doctor's office; they get a cancellation, call you, you're there in 10 minutes kind of thing.
- bookofjoe 4y ago
  You must also be psychic! The day after I got my "see you in the future" 2025 appointment, I woke up and saw there was a text from the doctor's office offering an earlier appointment: it said to go to the scheduling portal and follow the instructions. I thought, "huh." That was around 6 am. I mulled it over: did I even want an earlier appointment? I'm not a big fan of doctors (full disclosure: I am one). So I went about my day and finally around 1 p.m. decided it wouldn't hurt to have a look; after all, I could ignore or decline the offered new slot. No worries: when I logged on around 1 p.m., the portal said the new slot was no longer available. I wasn't sad.