Views from readers: Medical insurance companies + the gun industry

The gun industry

The second amendment never imagined the guns of war that we have now.

The AR-15 was designed for our military to be able to kill many enemy soldiers quickly.

The founding fathers would not understand that it is now used to kill school children of all ages, without our congressmen taking action to stop civilians from buying and then killing indiscriminately.That gun has no usefulness in civilian life.

If we don’t take action now, this will be minor to what can and will happen.

Outside of killing innocents, we are tearing our country apart and the base seems to be the greed and power of the gun industry.

Gloria Burlette

Diamondhead

Insurance companies

My physician recently ordered at stat (urgent) procedure performed for an acute medical condition.

I was thrown into the quagmire farce known as “medical prior authorization.” Prior authorization-sometimes called precertification or prior approval-is a health plan cost-control process by which physicians and other health care providers must obtain advance approval from a health plan before a specific service is delivered to the patient to qualify for payment coverage.

It took three days for me to get my stat procedure, because my insurance carrier, Aetna/Medicare. refused to pay for the procedure without prior authorization. They admitted the test was justified and covered but still needed prior authorization.

The American Medical Association believes that the overall volume of medical services and drugs requiring prior authorization should be greatly reduced. As part of its ongoing prior authorization reform initiatives, the AMA offers various reform resources, as well as research and reports, to help minimize the current impact of prior authorization on practices.

Instead of providing a guardrail against useless, expensive treatment, pre-authorization prevents patients from getting the vital care they need, researchers and doctors say.

The prior authorization system should be done away with in physicians’ offices. It’s really devastating, these unnecessary delays. The federal government proposed several changes that would force health plans, including Medicare, Medicare Advantage, and the federal Affordable Care Act, to speed up prior authorization decisions.

Some states have passed laws governing the process. Waiting for health insurers to authorize care comes with consequences for patients and blocks patients from getting the care they need

In my opinion, here’s how prior authorization should work. A patient has an illness or injury. They go to their physician who performs a thorough examination and determines they need a procedure, prescription, or lab work done. They write an order “authorizing” the procedure to be done and therefore validating the necessity. Isn’t that prior authorization?

John Grisham wrote a famous novel call the “Rainmaker” in which a large insurance company categorically denies claims in hopes clients will give up. Attorney Rudy Baylor represents a client who dies without getting the live-saving treatment he needs because the insurance company, Great Benefit, denies the claim. Baylor wins the case, but his client dies, and the company goes bankrupt.

In my opinion, prior authorization, is another unnecessary barrier by insurers to avoid paying claims.

Steve Delahousey

Biloxi

All about profits

The truth behind forcing a purchase is this.

If people are forced to buy electric cars to replace what they currently own, most will have to incur debt to do so.

That generates profit for the financial sector.

All these wealthy folks with money or stocks in banks need you to let them finance a car for you, while making profits on the interest.

If it was really about the environment, Joe would own a Tesla and not a Mustang.

There, now you know.

Ron Williams

Moss Point