If you look up the word \”compliance\” in a thesaurus, the first synonym (at least in my thesaurus) is \”obedience to.\” This implies that non-compliant patients are, at least to some degree, equivalent to disobedient patients. This is borne out by the reaction many patients seem to expect of me when they \”confess\” they haven\’t taken prescribed medications: they look guilty — like they are expecting to be scolded.
Fortunately for this my patient, I was not only able to reunite him with the joys of sitting, but I was able, with a little research, to find him his proctological savior at a low cost. Unfortunately, most patients don\’t have docs who are economically incentivized to save them money, and most people don\’t realize all of the games played by pharmaceutical companies and pharmacies to routinely perform wallet biopsies, nor do they know how to find the cheapest prices for their medications.
I don\’t know what can be done about this kind of thing aside from increasing awareness. I\’m not real confident in any government solution. People just need to be smarter shoppers when it comes to their care. It\’s just a shame that people who are dealing with health problems (even if it is just trouble sitting) have to outsmart the gaming done by those supposedly trying to help them.
