March - April 2013 - Hillsborough County Medical Association

In the words of John Tortorella
“Shut your yap!”
John Tortorella, the Tampa Bay Lightning
coach during the successful run to winning
the Stanley Cup in 2004, told the Philadelphia
Flyers coach, Ken Hitchcock, to mind his own
business and not talk to his players…in so many
words. Well, three to be exact.
And with all due respect to Torts, I’d like to say
to HCMA members, spouses, significant others,
guests, medical students, sponsors…and anyone
else sitting at the dinner tables, please…
“Shut your yap!”
I’ve been an officer of the HCMA for at least 10
years and thus I sit at the head table, giving me
an overview
of the entire
banquet
room. It’s
unbelievable,
that when
our president
calls
the meeting
to order, and
starts speaking, so does everyone else seated at
tables. I’ve even had the person next to me at the
head table try to carry on a conversation while
the president was trying to address the audience.
It’s just plain RUDE!
Of course, when the magical silverware hits the
glass of water, the crowd quiets down for a bit. It
used to be just the med students who were guilty,
but I looked around at the last dinner meeting
and there was some conversation at almost every
table. It’s embarrassing. If I were president and
trying to talk, I wouldn’t until everyone gave me
the courtesy and stopped talking. It’s bad enough
we can’t let our phones out of sight for a few minutes,
let alone hold our tongues for a brief period
of time during the meeting.
So I’m asking everyone who reads this to
please keep quiet, just for a little while, while the
meeting takes place, and if someone tries to start
up a conversation, just politely ask them to hold
their thought until the president and our speakers
finish.
Well, since I’ve started this column with a
“bitch,” I guess I can continue with a “moan” or
two since I haven’t written a “bitch and moan”
column in a while.
I had a female Humana patient who hadn’t
had an eye exam in about three years, so I opted
to test her with our tonometer, a screening test
for glaucoma, which I thought was covered by
almost every insurance company. The problem,
obviously, is when I think. She came in with an
EOB stating that she owed us a bit over $50 as
the test was not covered. A test that could potentially
prevent blindness was NOT covered. I love
Humana…
A prescription benefits manager denied a prescription
for
a young lady
with anxiety
and mild depression
for
generic Wellbutrin,
that’s
G E N E R I C
W E L L ­
BUTRIN. After
a half an
hour of wasting my time and speaking with three
different people, I was asked if the drug was for
weight control or smoking cessation. No, it was
for anxiety and mild depression. It was authorized
for a year. All they would have done was explain
WHY it was denied in the original fax to me, but
NOOOOOOOOO…
I inherited a 59-year-old male from an internist
who retired. The patient had slightly elevated
blood pressure, but wasn’t on medication, had a
family history of heart disease, and slightly elevated
total cholesterol and LDL. The doctor’s
notes stated that the patient was declining to take
any cholesterol medication, despite the elevated
levels and the strong family history of heart disease.
That’s fine; I have no problem with a patient
who decides he understands medicine better than
I, as long as he initials my note that “he refuses
treatment.” But I don’t understand why the doctor
continued to get lipid levels if the patient declined
treatment and each time the levels were
about the same. I can understand maybe checking
yearly or every two years, but not five times
during a 19 month time period (see the table cen­
(continued)
Editor’s Page
David Lubin, MD
Dajalu@aol.com
HCMA BULLETIN, Vol 58, No. 6 – March/April 2013 9