The Ethical Society is not a labor union or democracy. The Ethical Society does not support or endorse any political party. It is a Society based on moral / religious ideology created by principles commonly held and taught by many major religions.
The Ethical Society recognizes that many health care professionals selected their chosen professions in order to help people and as a way to demonstrate their faith and religious compliance to their convictions (or belief systems). Many professionals use their professions as a way of "ministering" to their clients. The ethics of this society are not inclusive of all ethical beliefs or positions.
The Ethical Society is an organization that is intended to over see the Ethics "represented" in the "decisions" that Manage Care Organizations and the Courts formulate. The Ethical Society views their standards and decisions as representing the "minimal acceptable standards" which may be in conflict with standards influenced by the "cost effectiveness" value, belief, or position.
The Ethical Society realizes that it's positions may be in conflict with health care organizations and courts which are based on laws, policy, regulations and rules and not on religious beliefs on religious beliefs. These laws, policy, regulations and rules are influenced by corporate interest and profit. We believe that the people with the power make the rules and the corporations have the power.
The goal of collective action will be to maintain the "highest ethical standards"; to maintain policies which create "minimal acceptable standards" in the practice of corporate medicine.
The Ethical Society is concerned that manage care may be creating a "standard of care" based on the procedures which they dictate and time frames they reimburse. Due to their power and influence they create a standard that could "hold them harmless" in that courts determine malpractice based on the "standard of care". If managed care determines the standard (though reimbursement policies) then they could be safe from legal accountability.
In other words if manage care only allows one day hospitalization for a mother delivering a baby, then that could become the standard of care. If a hospital or HMO is meeting established standards of care then the court "may" not find them guilty of malpractice. This could result in legalization of sub-standard care influenced by minimizing services and maximizing cost effectiveness.
This policy could be rewarded by unlimited and unregulated profits of insurance companies. It is the opinion of this Ethical Society that it has resulted in unlimited and unregulated profits. This Ethical Society questions the influence of large insurance companies and this ruling.
The Ethical Society recognizes the "imbalance of fairness" in that fees are set for "medical practitioners" (as well as standards and procedures) supposedly to hold down the cost of health care. In keeping with that logic of that "legal" position, this Ethical Society supports profit regulation for insurance companies and salaries for executives. We can not have one side of the market regulated and not the other.
The Ethical Society believes in fair trade practices that respects clients/patients, their insurance agents and the therapists.
The Ethical Society believes it is important to honor the client/patient time and honor their appointment time by seeing the patient on or at the agreed upon time. If a therapy hour is set aside for a client/patient and they do not show (or cancel too late to give the therapist/practitioner time to fill the therapy hour) the client should be charged for that time in which the service could have been provided.
This position is held due to pratice of normal physician's appointment times are scheduled at 6 minute intervals and not at one hour intervals. Doctors offices over-book appointments to absorb missed appointments and cancelations. If therapist allowed for missed appointments it would result in over-scheduling to absorbed the lost income, result in poor time management, increase hourly fee and/or other patients having to wait too long to be seen. (They do not refund your money if you miss a class in college.)
We believe that waiting room staff should call the patient if the service provider is running behind due to emergencies to inform the patient of the delay and offer the option of rescheduling to the patient. If this is not done, we believe the patient should be reimbursed for the office staff's inability to manage their practice.
The Ethical Society believes that it is rude and discounting for clients to have to wait two or three hours for an appointment unless they have been informed and consented.
The Ethical Society believes it is unethical and over reaching to for insurance companies to negotiate contracts that leverage practitioner by not allowing the practitioner to charge for missed appointments. It is not the role of a company to interfere and require the practitioner to incur loss when an hour appointment is missed.
We recognize that the company can choose to not pay for a visit that in not made because that do not want to absorb that loss but we do not think it is fair for the practitioner to loose either.