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American Morning
Paging Dr. Gupta: Is Your Doctor Telling You Everything?
Aired July 10, 2003 - 08:46 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Medical news right now. We're paging Dr. Gupta. Think your doctor isn't telling you everything? Well, according to a new study, about one in three doctors withhold some amount of information from their patients.
Our medical correspondent Sanjay Gupta, our good doctor, here to tell us about this. Surprise you at all?
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it does surprise me a little way, Although I think this is a little bit of an evolution of history, Bill. It's Sort of an interesting thing. We're talking about doctors and influence of insurance companies on them, Primarily. That's exactly what's been going on for some time. Kind of a tail wagging the dog, if you will.
The study authors from the Institute of Ethics at the American Medical Association set out to answer one question. They wanted to find out just how much of an impact this sort of situation was. This is the question they asked: "What does a doctor do when faced with a patient who would benefit from some medical service that is not going to be covered?" And that's specifically doctors who have patients that come to them, they know that they want to offer something that may not necessarily be covered by the patient's insurance plan, what do they do?
Well, here are the results. At least some of the results of that particular survey. They found 42 percent of people never withheld any information. They found 23 percent of people actually sometimes withheld the information. Sort of an interesting statistic I should say, as well, 27 percent said rarely they would withhold information, and 8 percent said often or very often they would withhold information.
So 23 plus 8 percent, that's about a third of the doctors are saying that they sometimes or always withhold information about this sort of thing.
Bill, I mention this as sort of an evolution of history. Really quick, there used to be a thing called gag clauses. Basically insurance companies would tell doctors, you can't tell the patients about certain things that are available. Obviously. there was a public outcry about that. Those gag clauses have since gone away. You're seeing another evolution now of those -- Bill.
HEMMER: You mention insurance a number of times in your answer there. Make the connection for us here -- 31 percent are saying sometimes or often they do not give complete disclosure to their patients. If you're a patient, how concerned are you?
GUPTA: Well, I think it is concerning. And to draw the link between insurance and doctors, again, really quickly. Basically, there are a lot of plans, insurance plans, that don't cover everything that might be of benefit to a patient. As far as the concern goes, for instance, if there's two drugs for example, anti-inflammatories are a good example, there are old generation anti-inflammatories like Naprosyn and there are new generation anti-inflammatory medications like Celebrex. Well, Celebrex is a lot more expensive. A lot of insurance plans won't necessarily cover that. Doctors just may say to the patient, we're going to write you a prescription for Naprosyn for your pain or for whatever reason, and not even tell the patient about another medication that might be as good or better for that particular patient.
Is it life threatening in most of these cases? Probably not. Are the treatments being withheld life-saving procedures? Probably not. But it is of concern, though, if patients aren't always getting full information -- Bill.
HEMMER: I tell you, I think when people hear about this study first, they think they're not getting full and complete story. You've done a good job defending the doctors in this. Are you guilty of this at times or not?
GUPTA: Well, you know, it's interesting, I think I used the anti-inflammatory example, because as a neurosurgeon, those are the sort of patients I take care of. And certainly, I do know insurance plans sometimes don't cover some of the more expensive anti- inflammatories, so I'll obviously offer the ones that are going to be covered by the patients' insurance first.
But it's sort of a balancing act. On one hand, I don't want my patients to be paying several hundred dollars a month for a new medication when another medication, an older medication, may do the duty just as well. It's a little bit of a tightrope there.
And, you know, Bill, I'm not necessarily defending doctors. I think the problem is there, for sure, and doctors need to always give all information, as we do on television, to their patients. I think that's a really important thing.
But the problem lies more with the health care system, and that's where the problem needs to be fixed -- Bill.
HEMMER: A good clarification. Thank you, Sanjay. Dr. Sanjay Gupta at the CNN Center.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired July 10, 2003 - 08:46 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Medical news right now. We're paging Dr. Gupta. Think your doctor isn't telling you everything? Well, according to a new study, about one in three doctors withhold some amount of information from their patients.
Our medical correspondent Sanjay Gupta, our good doctor, here to tell us about this. Surprise you at all?
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it does surprise me a little way, Although I think this is a little bit of an evolution of history, Bill. It's Sort of an interesting thing. We're talking about doctors and influence of insurance companies on them, Primarily. That's exactly what's been going on for some time. Kind of a tail wagging the dog, if you will.
The study authors from the Institute of Ethics at the American Medical Association set out to answer one question. They wanted to find out just how much of an impact this sort of situation was. This is the question they asked: "What does a doctor do when faced with a patient who would benefit from some medical service that is not going to be covered?" And that's specifically doctors who have patients that come to them, they know that they want to offer something that may not necessarily be covered by the patient's insurance plan, what do they do?
Well, here are the results. At least some of the results of that particular survey. They found 42 percent of people never withheld any information. They found 23 percent of people actually sometimes withheld the information. Sort of an interesting statistic I should say, as well, 27 percent said rarely they would withhold information, and 8 percent said often or very often they would withhold information.
So 23 plus 8 percent, that's about a third of the doctors are saying that they sometimes or always withhold information about this sort of thing.
Bill, I mention this as sort of an evolution of history. Really quick, there used to be a thing called gag clauses. Basically insurance companies would tell doctors, you can't tell the patients about certain things that are available. Obviously. there was a public outcry about that. Those gag clauses have since gone away. You're seeing another evolution now of those -- Bill.
HEMMER: You mention insurance a number of times in your answer there. Make the connection for us here -- 31 percent are saying sometimes or often they do not give complete disclosure to their patients. If you're a patient, how concerned are you?
GUPTA: Well, I think it is concerning. And to draw the link between insurance and doctors, again, really quickly. Basically, there are a lot of plans, insurance plans, that don't cover everything that might be of benefit to a patient. As far as the concern goes, for instance, if there's two drugs for example, anti-inflammatories are a good example, there are old generation anti-inflammatories like Naprosyn and there are new generation anti-inflammatory medications like Celebrex. Well, Celebrex is a lot more expensive. A lot of insurance plans won't necessarily cover that. Doctors just may say to the patient, we're going to write you a prescription for Naprosyn for your pain or for whatever reason, and not even tell the patient about another medication that might be as good or better for that particular patient.
Is it life threatening in most of these cases? Probably not. Are the treatments being withheld life-saving procedures? Probably not. But it is of concern, though, if patients aren't always getting full information -- Bill.
HEMMER: I tell you, I think when people hear about this study first, they think they're not getting full and complete story. You've done a good job defending the doctors in this. Are you guilty of this at times or not?
GUPTA: Well, you know, it's interesting, I think I used the anti-inflammatory example, because as a neurosurgeon, those are the sort of patients I take care of. And certainly, I do know insurance plans sometimes don't cover some of the more expensive anti- inflammatories, so I'll obviously offer the ones that are going to be covered by the patients' insurance first.
But it's sort of a balancing act. On one hand, I don't want my patients to be paying several hundred dollars a month for a new medication when another medication, an older medication, may do the duty just as well. It's a little bit of a tightrope there.
And, you know, Bill, I'm not necessarily defending doctors. I think the problem is there, for sure, and doctors need to always give all information, as we do on television, to their patients. I think that's a really important thing.
But the problem lies more with the health care system, and that's where the problem needs to be fixed -- Bill.
HEMMER: A good clarification. Thank you, Sanjay. Dr. Sanjay Gupta at the CNN Center.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
