Surgeons play the most important role in the surgical procedure -- if their patient is going to have the best possible result with an adhesion barrier. It has become more and more clear - especially as a result of Managed Care -- that surgeons are NOT taking the time necessary to do a meticulous clean-up at the end of a surgical procedure; and there are reasons for this:
Insurance companies and government health programs, such as Medicare and Medicaid, are reimbursing surgeons at the same LOW rate...whether the surgery takes 2 hours or as many as 10 hours to complete a surgery.
Put yourself in the role of a surgeon. If you were a surgeon, would you spend more than an estimated 2 hours doing a surgery that may need many more hours to complete (say 3 -10 hours) -- when you knew that you were going to be paid for only the estimated 2 hours?
When it comes to adhesiolysis procedures, hospitals are also in the same position as the surgeon is!! Based on that " simple " adhesiolysis, which is supposed to be completed in about 2 hours, hospitals are also reimbursed at one LOW rate for the use of their operating rooms. An adhesiolysis procedure that takes much longer than those 2 hours, ties up the operating room for other procedures!! If you were in charge of a hospital, would you be satisfied if one of the surgeons spent from 3 to as many as10 hours performing an adhesiolysis procedure -- when you knew that the hospital would be reimbursed for only 2 hours?
By the LOW rates at which surgeons and hospitals are reimbursed for an adhesiolysis, insurance companies and government health programs (Medicare and Medicaid) are actually telling surgeons and hospitals how much time they are being allowed to complete this surgical procedure. According to the schedule of reimbursement for an adhesiolysis, these proceduresare perhaps listed as the " lowest " reimbursed surgical procedures on their payment schedule.
Are insurance companies and government health programs qualified to practice medicine? Of course not!! THIS IS WHERE THE PROBLEM LIES!
Doctors and surgeons do NOT need this kind of interference in their practice of medicine!!!
Until there are changes in the way that adhesiolysis procedures are reimbursed by insurance companies and government health programs, ARD SUFFERERS WILL CONTINUE TO SUFFER FROM FAILED SURGICAL PROCEDURES!!