Back Pain and the Money Whores

The anesthesiologist, now pain management specialist (a.k.a., "the block jock") doesn't care about controlling your pain unless it involves sticking a needle in you. They love doing this shit (even though a monkey could do it just as well).

I had a patient who received a block in an area that didn't even correspond to her pain (but, then again, I can't blame the block jock--why the fuck should he bother to take a history, when there's no money in it?).

Back pain is a huge fucking problem for society, and lots of people are lined up to make a buck on it whether or not there's evidence for their intervention. The orthopedic-trained spine guys are particularly notorious. Yeah, it's a generalization, but prove me wrong if you don't like it.

A big part of my job is protecting my patients from these money whores.

We all know that the patients don't get better, so who the fuck are you trying to kid?

Shit, in our area, these guys don't even bother to send consult notes back to the referring physician (assuming the patient was really referred).

It's a huge vortex that sucks money. In our situation, it also takes it out of the pockets of the primary care physicians in one of our more important capitated contracts.

So, for the anesthesiologists, the physiatrists, and the spine docs that operate or intervene on a whim, here's a big "fuck you" from the rest of us, and from the patients you harm.

Read some fucking evidence for once.

P.S.--It looks like the lay media's on to you...check out the NY Times blog on rising back pain costs.