Hospitals taking kids away from parents to make money

Discussion in 'Health Care' started by Anders Hoveland, Jun 7, 2015.

  1. Anders Hoveland

    Anders Hoveland Banned

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    I want to bring to your attention another little healthcare related issue. It does not affect most people, but the problem is very troubling.

    Some hospitals are getting children removed from their parents custody to make money.

    http://medicalkidnap.com/2014/12/30/medical-kidnapping-billion-dollar-adoption-business/

    The hospital files a report saying how horrible and negligent the parents are so they loose their children. Then the hospital can load the child full of expensive drugs and bill the government for it. These children typically come from low income families and the parents do not have the resources to fight back.

    It is also a problem in foster care systems. The children get prescribed all sorts of expensive pharmaceuticals they may not really need. If the foster parents raise any objections they risk losing the child. All paid for by the taxpayers.

    As if children today are not drugged up enough already on overprescribed Ritalin and other psychotropic drugs.

    These drugs are not cheap and the hospitals and pharmaceutical companies are getting lots of money. Just another part of the reason for skyrocketing costs of medical care.
     
  2. BrianBoo

    BrianBoo Active Member

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    Or maybe there is no sinister plot here for profit.

    Maybe the parents losing custody are, in actuality, horrible and negligent.
     
  3. Deckel

    Deckel Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Why take them to the hospital if you are going to disregard their treatment plan--to sue them when the kid suffers harmful or fatal consequences due to your not following medical advice? Medicaid patients traditionally lose money for treatment facilities, so is the a conspiracy to get a tax write-off?
     
  4. Anders Hoveland

    Anders Hoveland Banned

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    Many may not realize this, but there are many cases where the "medical advice" is not truly in the best interest of the patient. Those giving the advice are often incentivized to recommend, or not recommend certain treatments.

    This is especially true when it comes to the pharmaceutical industry. The vast majority of pharmaceutical sales do not actually cure anything; they are just pills that are designed to make people feel better. It's actually incredibly expensive to develop a drug to actually truly cure something, and not very profitable either.

    I read that for every general care physician, there are five pharmaceutical salesmen. That is just ridiculous. They take the doctors out to expensive dinners and try to convince them to prescribe their pills. In many cases the doctors even get kickbacks. Most people have no idea.

    That is true, but the compensation is higher for children, and pharmaceuticals are still a very lucrative area. In other words, even at the same time patients in need are getting substandard treatment, these same hospitals are trying to recoup their loses by prescribing more profitable treatments elsewhere, where it is not really needed. In some cases, many hospitals are basically forced to cheat the system, because the reimbursements have been cut so low.

    This goes on much more than people realize. In some hospitals doctors are under pressure to cut costs or increase revenue.
     
  5. PaulDennis

    PaulDennis New Member

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    So your theory is because docs might be incentivized to push a certain medication, that they're going to prescribe said medications even if it's not in the best interest of the patient?

    Maybe this could happen in some rare instances where a few docs don't live up to their ethical oaths, but unless you believe in conspiracy theories, I doubt docs are going to be doing this on any wide scale, where their patients could be harmed by not prescribing the best medication, or worse, treatments that aren't in their best interest.

     
  6. Anders Hoveland

    Anders Hoveland Banned

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    It's hardly a conspiracy theory. These arrangements usually happen in plain sight. There is a large amount of money at stake. A doctor could increase his income 30-50% by succumbing to moderately unethical decisions. You obviously do not understand the mentality of most doctors. There is a saying: the crap floats to the top. The people who are in decision-making positions, why do you think they got there in the first place? These people are not really representative of the "normal" honest population of people.

    Patients are harmed. Usually there is not a direct cause and effect relationship though, it is not obvious. For example, performing an invasive medical procedure that might be warranted, but that the patient would probably have been better without.

    You think the doctor is going to feel any guilt about prescribing expensive pills that might have a tiny chance of possibly helping the patient?
     
  7. PaulDennis

    PaulDennis New Member

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    I got ya. So patients that "might" need a procedure and might not, AND might be better off without the procedure, are simply going to take that unethical doctor's word for it without asking for a 2nd opinion? :roll:

    I trust my doctor, but still.....if it wasn't life and death or critical, and it was an "invasive" procedure I "might" need or might not need, I'm sure as hell not just accepting the doc's recommendation without thinking it through, and seeking a second opinion.

    I still say conspiracy theory. :smile:

     
  8. Anders Hoveland

    Anders Hoveland Banned

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    It's surprisingly easy for parents to loose their children:

    [video=youtube;PTyO_uXvz9M]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTyO_uXvz9M[/video]
     
  9. hudson1955

    hudson1955 Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    This is pure B.S. It doesn't make sense for one and for two it doesn't make a hospital money. Don't know how a sane person can believe this to begin with.
     
  10. kazenatsu

    kazenatsu Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Maybe they're losing money so they try to make it up by prescribing pharmaceuticals. Those pharmaceuticals can be very profitable, for the pharmaceutical company, hospital, and doctors. Markups on many pharmaceuticals are much higher than other medical treatments (in terms of profit margins).

    You're obviously not aware that it's common for doctors to get kickbacks and incentives for prescribing pharmaceuticals. Pharmaceutical reps and salespeople ingratiate themselves to physicians.

    It's not altogether that different from lobbyists and politicians.
     
    Last edited: Jan 14, 2019
  11. kazenatsu

    kazenatsu Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Doctors caught on tape plotting to take custody of newborns whose parents refuse vitamin K shots

    https://pjmedia.com/trending/doctor...ewborns-whose-parents-refuse-vitamin-k-shots/

    After a class-action lawsuit was filed in October against several hospitals, Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS), and several doctors, audio has surfaced of some of the defendants in the case plotting to collude with DCFS to take children away from parents extra-lawfully. Recordings of these doctors at a committee meeting appear to bolster the plaintiffs' claims that the hospitals and agencies named in the suit "used the power given to them as State officials and/or employees and through their authorities and investigative powers to cause the Plaintiffs to be threatened and coerced into accepting unwanted and unnecessary medical procedures," as alleged in the lawsuit.

    In April of 2018, the Perinatal Advisory Committee (PAC) that operates under the Illinois Department of Health met to discuss giving injections of Vitamin K in violation of the written refusals of parents. Not all the people on the recording can be identified by voice.

    Innocent parents had their children removed from their custody on nothing more than some unelected busybody's opinion that their medical degree was more important than constitutional rights and the right to informed consent.

    At least one member of the PAC made it clear that she didn't care what happened after she imposed her will on American citizens using the power of the State. Although she may not care what happens next, when a doctor declares a parent unfit to make medical decisions and involves child welfare, the consequences are nothing short of horrific.

    Medical kidnappings can and do result in accusations of "medical child abuse" by child welfare agents, leading to lengthy court battles and even the termination of parental rights. The Drake Pardo case in Texas illustrates this growing threat to families. Drake was taken from his parents and put into foster care because his mother wanted a second opinion on his condition. Theirs isn't the only story of doctors-gone-wild with power and professional privilege. The case of Justine Pelletier resulted in national attention when Boston Children's Hospital held a child with a rare mitochondrial disease for 16 months against her will, without proper treatment, and away from her parents in a psych ward until a judge intervened and ordered her to be returned to her family.

    The fact that doctors in Chicago are trying to expand the definition of medical neglect to include refusal of procedures that are not mandated by law, and DCFS appears to be eager to do their bidding, is unconscionable and if unchecked it will lead to more innocent families torn apart unnecessarily. ​
     
  12. Xenamnes

    Xenamnes Banned

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    It is part of the reason the united states is currently in the midst of an opioid crisis.
     

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