InvestigateTV - Season 2; Episode 9
InvestigateTV - You put your life in doctors’ hands, but InvestigateTV reveals your physician could be keeping secrets from you. In “Private Practice”, Joce Sterman exposes how the system meant to keep doctors in check is letting physicians keep their licenses even when they come to work impaired. Plus, non-profit hospitals claim they charge privately insured patients more to make up for losses on Medicare reimbursements, but a new report says some hospitals are making money off Medicare. Finally, as Americans struggle with the cost of healthcare, Rachel DePompa shares ways you can keep your appointments, while still finding ways to save. WHERE TO WATCH ICYMI – Watch last week’s episode.
Private Practice: Physicians battle addictions to alcohol and drugs like any other professionals. But their substance abuse can and has interfered with their ability to practice safely, putting patients at risk. How those physicians are treated, and in some cases disciplined, is part of a process that’s kept largely out of the public eye, with intensive digging required to discover some doctors are given multiple attempts at recovery or engage in gross misconduct before they’re removed from practice. Our investigation examines the discipline records of physicians across the country that have been taken to task for substance abuse on the job and delves into the state-affiliated programs nationwide that work to treat them – often without disclosing anything to the public or even the medical boards tasked with making sure you’re protected from impaired physicians who may hold your life in their hands.
Then we look at the delays in informing medical boards and the public when physicians break their rehab contracts, as well as shortcomings in how they’re disciplined when they relapse. Our team pulled stunning examples from doctor disciplinary records across the U.S. showing that some physicians repeatedly fail drug tests, get arrested for DUIs and even turn up under the influence on the job long before the public is ever told. Even then, they’re often punished with a slap on the wrist.
Hospitals Claim Medicare Losses: Health care costs are rising and Americans are struggling. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, roughly 40% of adults say they’ve delayed or foregone care because they couldn’t afford it. Non-profit hospitals claim they charge privately insured patients more to make up for losses on Medicare reimbursements, but a new report says some hospitals are making money off Medicare.
Watching Your Wallet: For many Americans, a trip to the doctor is determined by the cost of the visit, instead of the medical need. In this Watching Your Wallet, Consumer Investigator Rachel DePompa finds out ways you can keep your appointments, while still finding ways to save.
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