Modern medicine has become nothing more than a convoluted maze of deductibles, copays, HMOs, and preauthorizations. What has been lost in our system of health care is the basic act of a doctor and patient sitting across from one another, with the patient explaining his or her problems in complete detail. However, in order for the doctor-patient relationship to develop in this manner, it can only be done outside of the current health insurance model. Why? Because insurance companies aren’t interested in getting people healthy. Rather, they are only looking to get people asymptomatic. They believe, despite the level of published evidence to show otherwise, that restricting patients’ access to medical care will lower costs.
Here is a perfect example of why our offices and doctors do not participate with insurances. Yesterday a goon from Blue Cross/Blue Shield walked into our Richmond office and proceeded to strong-arm our medical assistant, Callie. The goon basically attempted to railroad Callie by chastising her because the doctors send “too much” bloodwork to out-of-state specialty laboratories (you know, the ones that actually identify the origins of various diseases). She told Callie that BCBSM would sanction us if we kept referring to these specialty labs instead of those that BCBSM likes.

This is exactly what the public never sees. Even with an insurance company like BCBSM, where you can choose your doctor, you are not truly free to select the type of medical care you want.

Anyhow, Callie ultimately directed her to me, and I promptly spoke to this goon and told her that we don’t participate with BCBSM at all (for exactly this reason). Hence, sanctions cannot be administered, and BCBSM cannot tell us how to treat our patients.

WE CARE ABOUT OUR PATIENTS ONLY. WE DON’T CARE WHAT INSURANCE THEY HAVE, WHAT IT COVERS OR DOESN’T, OR WHAT THEIR DEDUCTIBLE IS. WE WANT TO HELP OUR PATIENTS RECOVER FROM THEIR ILLNESSES, AND NOT JUST “MANAGE” THEM. WHATEVER LABORATORY STUDIES WE NEED TO IDENTIFY THE ORIGIN OF A PATIENT’S ILLNESS, WE WILL USE.

If you want to get better, come see us. If your insurance deductible and copay is your primary concern, then call BCBSM and get a referral to an office where they don’t really care about getting you better.

On September 24th, 2011, the Natural Wellness & Pain Relief Centers in Richmond will be hosting a Grand Opening!

The day’s events include a ribbon-cutting ceremony, featured health workshops, and tons of free information and prizes.

As part of our community health awareness program, in partnership with the Michigan Health & Wellness Initiative, during the Grand Opening we will be offering FREE blood pressure checks, breathing tests, and FREE laboratory tests including intestinal flora, antioxidant status, 10-parameter urinalysis, and H. Pylori testing (a common cause of ulcers and autoimmune disorders).

We will be taking $15 donations, all of which will be given to a local charity.

Laboratory testing is on a first come, first served basis until test kits are gone.

Come and find out why the Natural Wellness & Pain Relief Center in Richmond is the most comprehensive integrative medicine clinic in Macomb County.

For more information, please call 586-727-7500.

Media contacts: Please call 810-694-3576 for interviews with Dr. Megan Strauchman, Medical Director.

This is a bit of a departure for me in terms of how I write my posts on our clinic blog. Today, my family and I went to breakfast at a great place in Ortonville called Dan’s Country Coney. They make the best omelets.

Anyway, as we were there eating, another family came in a sat a couple of tables from us. When they ordered, the father ordered a Coke for his 6-yr-old son (I’m guessing his age based upon his size)!

Frankly, several things ran through my head. First, as a doctor I consider this child abuse. They might as well have let him eat a pack of SweetTarts or M&Ms for breakfast along with it. Heck, why not let him go outside with his dad for a smoke? As a parent, I wanted to say something to the parents, but I figured it would come out incredibly rude.

The reason I’m blogging about this is because I hit a breaking point in my head. This was the third incident of this that I’d seen or heard secondhand in the last week. We as a society have to understand that these habits are going to SEVERELY reduce our children’s life span and quality of life. I actually am starting to have a rough time finding children running around the mall who aren’t clinically obese.

Back to the story at hand. All of the fat cells that we produce as human beings will be made by the time we hit around age 8. Thereafter, we don’t increase the number of fat cells; our fat cells just inflate as we take in too many calories. Giving children sugar, and especially high fructose corn syrup, increases the number of fat cells their bodies produce. Hence, as adults, they are more prone to developing diabetes and other obesity-related disorders because they have more fat cells with which to store fat.

To take this a step further, our bodies cannot process high fructose corn syrup because it is a laboratory-created chemical. However, that doesn’t stop our bodies from trying to break it down. In this process, our pancreas produces much higher amount of insulin in an effort to break it down. Insulin, as most people don’t realize, is a fat storage hormone. Many researchers believe that over the course of one’s life, the less insulin he/she produces, the longer he/she will live, and with a much higher quality of life. Once insulin is created, it binds to sugar and high fructose corn syrup and transfers it to fat cells to be stored, either as fat (sugar) or as a toxin (high fructose corn syrup). Yes! High fructose corn syrup is a toxin!!! I don’t care what the TV commercials say (you know…the ones produced by the corn growers associations) about how it’s okay in moderation. No it isn’t! That’s like saying rat poison is okay in small amounts. I don’t think the rats would agree.

I would love to hear your thoughts.

Dr. Morningstar

http://www.activistpost.com/2011/03/fda-comes-to-rescue-of-big-pharma.html