Recently I went for my yearly physical with my Primary Care Physician. My PCP is a great guy and we get along very well. However, on my most recent visit he spent about 5 minutes with me, simply glossing over test results to make a determination about my health status. His evaluation was simply based on a sheet of paper rather than an interaction with the person sitting in front of him. This often leads to prescription of medication, rather than a discussion about lifestyle changes or a root cause that may have led to an abnormal test result.
Unfortunately this is often the case in the health care field. Symptoms are often simply addressed as they come along. The body is not appreciated in its entirety, as health care providers are simply too busy to take a comprehensive look into things. This does not only occur with medical doctors as this happens just as frequently in other fields, including Physical Therapy (Gasp!).
Now, please do not interpret this as a rant against other health care practitioners. They are often left with no choice. The health insurance industry consistently limits reimbursement to health care providers which limits the amount of time and quality of care they can provide to each individual patient. For these reasons, visits often become very “cookie cutter.”
If you go to Physical Therapy because of lower back pain then you get put on the lower back pain protocol, shoulder pain=shoulder protocol, etc.
This may work for some people however does not for those looking to live an active, pain free and healthy life.
Every health care practitioner should treat each patient as an individual. The underlying cause of shoulder pain is almost always completely different from one person to the next. These underlying causes must be addressed for a patient to get out of pain, back to doing what they love and prevent it from becoming a chronic issue.
For this reason I now seek out practitioners that are out of network with health insurance. This will enable them to provide me with the highest quality of care possible and treat me as an individual.
As a Physical Therapist, husband and active person, my health is paramount and the most important thing that I can invest in. Without one’s health, everything else is impossible to enjoy. This approach would create a society that is much more active, less dependent on medication and healthier as a whole.
For this reason we are also out of network providers here at Cohen Health and Performance. We strive to provide the highest quality of care possible as this enables us to get our patients better, faster.
We take this very seriously as the health and happiness of our patients is paramount. We work to ensure that our patients function at the highest level possible and can return to doing what they love, even when they have been unsuccessful in Physical Therapy or care somewhere else.
If I sound passionate about this, it is because I am. People have the ability to become pain free and free from limitations within their life. Our mission at CHP will always be to take care of our patients the best we possibly can which is something everyone should seek from all of their health care providers.
