Post by unlawflcombatnt on Aug 17, 2015 23:20:03 GMT -6
I just became aware of one of the latest victims of Obamacare & Corporatized Medicine--my own wife.
She recently saw her primary care physician for low back pain.
I have to confess that I didn't fully appreciate how much trouble she was having, though she had been walking with a stooped posture for several years.
She had an X-ray of her Lumbar Spine done.
The Corporate medicine-owned Radiologist read the X-ray as
"...Moderate rightward curvature involving the mid/lower lumbar spine noted. Mild to moderate multilevel degenerative disc disease present...The vertebral body heights and spinal alignment are other wise maintained.
IMPRESSION: Lumbar spondylosis wth no acute osseous abnormality identified."
I read the report several days before I actually saw the imaging.
And then I saw the imaging (i.e., lumbar X-rays)
WTF?!!!
There was nothing "mild-to-moderate" about her disc degeneration!
It is somewhere between SEVERE to VERY SEVERE.
There is almost no disk space whatsoever between her Lumbar Vertebra.
There are Large anterior osteophytes (bone spurs) on her lower lumbar vertebra--consistent with severe lumbar degenerative disk disease.
Again, there is almost NO disk space between her Lumbar vertebra.
That defines SEVERE Degenerative Disk Disease--there is almost no way for the disks to degenerate any further--as they have almost completely collapsed.
The under-reading of this X-ray is extremely problematic.
If the ordering M.D. doesn't get a chance to actually see the X-ray himself--which is often the case in modern-day Corporatized medicine--he'll never realize how piss-pore the bought-off Radiologist's reading is.
This kind of reading is designed to reduce any kind of referral by the primary M.D. for more aggressive (and more expensive) treatment. As such, it is designed to reduce costs and increase profits for the shareholders and management of the medical insurance companies.
This situation is a product of the combined efforts of Health Insurance Companies and their lobbiests, Obamacare, and the reduced enforcement of anti-trust legislation to prevent said insurance companies from controlling entire, or nearly entire health insurance markets.
You can bet that I will be taking my wife for a 2nd opinion in a neighboring locale (under control of a different Medical Insurance Oligopoly.)
At least then there'll be someone with a financial incentive to review & revise the under-interpretation of her recent Lumbar Spine X-ray.
She recently saw her primary care physician for low back pain.
I have to confess that I didn't fully appreciate how much trouble she was having, though she had been walking with a stooped posture for several years.
She had an X-ray of her Lumbar Spine done.
The Corporate medicine-owned Radiologist read the X-ray as
"...Moderate rightward curvature involving the mid/lower lumbar spine noted. Mild to moderate multilevel degenerative disc disease present...The vertebral body heights and spinal alignment are other wise maintained.
IMPRESSION: Lumbar spondylosis wth no acute osseous abnormality identified."
I read the report several days before I actually saw the imaging.
And then I saw the imaging (i.e., lumbar X-rays)
WTF?!!!
There was nothing "mild-to-moderate" about her disc degeneration!
It is somewhere between SEVERE to VERY SEVERE.
There is almost no disk space whatsoever between her Lumbar Vertebra.
There are Large anterior osteophytes (bone spurs) on her lower lumbar vertebra--consistent with severe lumbar degenerative disk disease.
Again, there is almost NO disk space between her Lumbar vertebra.
That defines SEVERE Degenerative Disk Disease--there is almost no way for the disks to degenerate any further--as they have almost completely collapsed.
The under-reading of this X-ray is extremely problematic.
If the ordering M.D. doesn't get a chance to actually see the X-ray himself--which is often the case in modern-day Corporatized medicine--he'll never realize how piss-pore the bought-off Radiologist's reading is.
This kind of reading is designed to reduce any kind of referral by the primary M.D. for more aggressive (and more expensive) treatment. As such, it is designed to reduce costs and increase profits for the shareholders and management of the medical insurance companies.
This situation is a product of the combined efforts of Health Insurance Companies and their lobbiests, Obamacare, and the reduced enforcement of anti-trust legislation to prevent said insurance companies from controlling entire, or nearly entire health insurance markets.
You can bet that I will be taking my wife for a 2nd opinion in a neighboring locale (under control of a different Medical Insurance Oligopoly.)
At least then there'll be someone with a financial incentive to review & revise the under-interpretation of her recent Lumbar Spine X-ray.