How Health Care Gets Paid for in America: Part II

Chapter 2: Levels of Medical Necessity.

Welcome to The Frontier Psychiatrists. It’s a Health-related newsletter and podcast, and poor-quality videos come out here, too. This is part II of my co-written FPs reader-requested exploration of the history and weirdness around healthcare payments…in the first installment, we met Pat, who fainted in a restaurant…and got IV fluids and a psychiatric evaluation in the ER. (this is a series…please go back and re-read that for context if you missed it). There is even a promotional message at the end.

Oops, I did it again...

When the emergency room psychiatrist arrives, Pat is exhausted and embarrassed by her day. She has a thought that many of us may have had in our darkest moments - “Is life even worth living anymore?” She immediately dismisses the thought - it WAS a beautiful day.  She’ll remember to only go to restaurants during off hours.  Manageable. She’ll wake up tomorrow, go to work, and not have lunch until 2 p.m.  Easy Peasy.

There’s only one problem.  Confused and with assoc…