Otolaryngologists-Head and Neck Surgeons Urged: Be Part of the Solution in Health Care Reform

For Dr. Denneny, this is a more complex issue for physicians than just showing up at the table. When we go to the table, we are restricted by the antitrust laws. We’re not protected like the insurance companies and lawyers, he said. What no one has been able to tell the physicians is, ‘How do you tell your mother she can’t have this test?’

Both Dr. Kane and Dr. Denneny emphasized that the interest of the patient should be paramount in any and all efforts at reforming current medical practices.

To ensure this, Dr. Denneny believes that physicians’ groups and patient groups need to get together to start talking. The questions to answer are What services do patients expect, and what services are going to be covered? Until we have answers to those questions, said Dr. Denneny, it will be difficult to adequately fashion a system to provide medical services, much less fund it.

Urging physicians and associations such as AAO-HNS/F to really put the patient first, Dr. Kane suggested improvements in medical education that would include addressing socioeconomic issues, as well as many other issues that directly and dramatically affect patient care, such as literacy problems and communication issues that often result in noncompliance.

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