Pursuing Health Equity
Pursuing Health Equity
Just two days after the US Supreme Court released a 9-0 opinion favoring physicians exercising their clinical judgement when prescribing medication to patients under the Controlled Substance Act, the Justice Department announced the formation of a new strike force targeting medical professionals prescribing and dispensing controlled substances.
For patients with rare disease, complex chronic illnesses and disabilities navigating the health care system has become a fight for survival. Patients experience systemic disability discrimination and bias when attempting to obtain or retain access to treatments and medications vital to managing their health.
Due to interference with the practice of medicine patients are being forced to play a game of medical roulette.
Many people believe that Opioid Sparing is becoming the standard practice in medicine. They are sadly mistaken. Instead, the standard practice is now to discriminate against patients with disabilities with severe pain as a component. Many facilities have instituted No-Opioid Policies.
Too often I hear of instances of times when patients attend an appointment with a healthcare provider and attempt to discuss an issue with them and come out feeling worse…