<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Arial, Helvetica, Verdana">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by kafuola:
My son, 4 year's old, went to our private doctor's office yesterday. And they refused to see him because our insurance card was coming up invalid when they swiped it through thier machine. I even asked the receptionist to call the 800 number on the back of the card, to verify coverage, and she said it wasn't her job.
I had to wait until the night clinic opened up in our local hospital, and take him there. Finally he was diagnosed with Bilateral Otitis Media. Ear infections in both ears!
I am so upset, but I really don't know what my rights are. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
My response:
THE HIPPOCRATIC OATH
I swear by Apollo the physician, by Æsculapius, Hygeia, and Panacea, and I take to witness all the gods, all the goddesses, to keep according to my ability and my judgement, the following Oath.
"To consider dear to me as my parents him who taught me this art; to live in common with him and if necessary to share my goods with him; to look upon his children as my own brothers, to teach them this art if they so desire without fee or written promise; to impart to my sons and the sons of the master who taught me and the disciples who have enrolled themselves and have agreed to the rules of the profession, but to these alone the precepts and the instruction. I will prescribe regimen for the good of my patients according to my ability and my judgement and never do harm to anyone. To please no one will I prescribe a deadly drug nor give advice which may cause his death. Nor will I give a woman a pessary to procure abortion. But I will preserve the purity of my life and my art. I will not cut for stone, even for patients in whom the disease is manifest; I will leave this operation to be performed by practitioners, specialists in this art. In every house where I come I will enter only for the good of my patients, keeping myself far from all intentional ill-doing and all seduction and especially from the pleasures of love with women or with men, be they free or slaves. All that may come to my knowledge in the exercise of my profession or in daily commerce with men, which ought not to be spread abroad, I will keep secret and will never reveal. If I keep this oath faithfully, may I enjoy my life and practice my art, respected by all men and in all times; but if I swerve from it or violate it, may the reverse be my lot."
In the above oath, that doctors still take even to this day, there does not say anywhere that they "must render treatment without MasterCard."
In most States, a doctor's duty - - without regard to payment - - is to stableize a patient where potential loss of life is at stake, and without immediate treatment, death may occur.
Like yourself when you perform work, your doctor is also a business person and, like anyone else performing a service, is entitled to be paid, and to create certain safeguards to insure receipt of payment. In the absense of an emergency where life is at stake, a doctor does not "owe" anyone the benefit of his education or livlihood. In other words, the doctor wants to be paid, and not have to waste time by chasing patients for his/her money.
While your son was, I am sure, in pain, the problem was not life-threatening. Therefore, in the absence of payment, the doctor had a right to refuse treatment in this non-emergency situation.
IAAL
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