Health Care Check-Up: Doctors Vs. Insurance Companies
By ABC-7 Reporter Daniel Marin
EL PASO — It’s the cornerstone of medicine says Dr. Luis Urrea. “We want take care of the patient, we want the one on one relationship,” he says.
But even cornerstones aren’t rock-solid guarantees in today’s American health care. At least, not according to a group of doctors at the El Paso Orthopedic Surgery Group on Lee Trevino.
“You have to deal with a lot of administrative burden,” Urrea says with a sigh. The new president of the El Paso County Medical Society, he says tug of war with insurance companies isn’t what he signed up for when he took the Hippocratic Oath.
“When you get into medical school, you want to work with people and help them out,” he tells ABC-7. “But once you get out, there’s a business aspect of medicine which you never think about.”
That’s a sentiment, echoed by his colleague Dr. Andrew Palafox.
“At least once a day, we’ll get a denial on some of treatment we’ve ordered,” he laments.
The reasons for the denials? Well, there’s the dreaded ‘pre-existing conditions.’ Dr. David Mansfield says he’s heard it all when trying to order a procedure.
“Several physicians have said {the patient} needs it,” he says. “The insurance company wants him to go to another physician; this time, a psychiatrist because the insurance company thinks the pain’s all in his head.”
