There are a lot of things we do in healthcare without really knowing why we do them, or evaluating if they are really necessary.

These things aren’t really medical decisions, as they are usually evidence based and have good science and reasoning behind them.

The things I’m taking about are jumping through insurance hoops, participating in billing shenanigans, and following the lead of hospital administration who care mostly about money and little about anything else.

A good rule of thumb is to ask:

Does the task that you have been requested to do contribute to patient medical care?

If it does, then it is usually worth doing.

If it doesn’t, then you really need to question why you are sacrificing patient time to do it.

The answer of “This is the way we have always done it” has to be the worst possible response.

Sadly for most, if they don’t do these insane billing/insurance related tasks they won’t get paid, tests won’t get done, and care will suffer.

The solution isn’t to keep just saying “OK” and just doing what they tell you to.

The real way to get around it is to stop working with insurance companies and hospital systems altogether, then you don’t have to do any of that nonsense.

A good rule of thumb is to ask: does the task that you have been requested to do contribute to patient medical care?

We are conditioned to think that they are completely necessary, they aren’t.

Many direct care providers, including myself, actually live by this, these aren’t empty words.

If you think that it can’t be done for your specialty then you will never get out of Shawshank.