Insurance Companies Scare Patients to Save Money

Health Insurers Show Employees
Graphic Surgery Videos

By SARAH RUBENSTEIN
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL ONLINE
November 30, 2005; Page B1

Consumers clicking through a health insurance Web site, past the doctor directories, claim forms and benefits summaries, may happen upon something a little more compelling: live-action surgery videos.

There is the diabetic foot-ulcer procedure, in which forceps peel away dead tissue as blood drips down the foot. There is the skin-cancer footage, in which a scalpel cuts into the fine, wrinkled skin on the hand of an elderly woman. And there's the cataract video, which shows a needle piercing an eye, while a narrator explains that the needle is used to "fragment the lens into thousands of little pieces and suction it'' away.

But some physicians have mixed feelings about the visual displays. "There's a shock value to this, and just the shock value is going to scare some people away'' from surgery that may benefit them, says Richard de Asla, an orthopedic surgeon at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB113331375390909723.html?mod=todays_us_marketplace

You can't beat big insurance. Their business plans depends on denying claims, forcing yout to fight them, and hoping you give up. My health insurance is a joke.

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unhappycamper
DU Moderator

Sorry for the oversight.

premise. I think people should be MORE educated about medicine and take responsibility for their health. Squeamishness is SOOO American, isn't it? God forbid we ever deal with disease, disfigurement, or death.

If people knew more about the consequences of neglecting their health were, maybe they could avoid these procedures altogether.
Plus, I think people need to get over it and learn more about what they're getting into when they decide to opt for surgery or other procedures.

And, BTW, I'm an RN in Surgical Services. There are a lot of surgeries out there that are not even very effective and people have them every day because they don't educate themselves.

Just my .02.