Question

Discuss the perception of use and misuse of health services, including the practice of limiting mental health coverage sub-limits, and utilizing higher co-payments than for medical coverage. Discuss the issue of patient non-compliance, patient non-adherence and the correlation of the perception or fear of iatrogenic illness or iatrogenic consequences (such as misdiagnosis, missed-diagnosis, or fear of hospitals based on conditioning), and the factor of cost of prescribed medication.

Answer 1

Knowingly or unknowingly,wantedly or unwantedly health care system and health care services are being highly misused even though its use is much appreciated.Use, as we know the health cover insurance covers for our health care expenses as per the premium.It comes very handy in case of emergencies or the treatment of major medical conditions.The misuse can happen from either ways,from patients side and hospital side.Just because one has a good insurance coverage going to a neurologist for the management of simple tension headache and getting an MRI/CT just to rule out any pathology (space occupying lesion like tumor) is complete misuse from the patient side and he is giving the hospital a chance to misuse his rights and to get greedy.The patients who really require an MRI/CT has to wait for their turn.

With the high emerging of insurance companies and easily available medical help,patients tend to mistrust the prescriber(doctor)and keep taking multiple opinions for a simple ailment resulting in non compliance(not following the prescription) and non adherence(sticking to the orders of time mentioned to take the medication )which all together can take a toll on the medical system as well as health services.

To avoid this type of misuse from patient side and to have a check on the medical expenses insurance companies have come up with the idea of coverage sublimits(states only a certain amount/ percentage will be paid by the insurance company) and co-payments.(mentions that a percentage of the amount should be paid by the patient).Again,just like two sides of the same coin, the economically not so strong community will suffer.