Can a Psychiatrist legally terminate or refuse to treat a patient covered by Medicare?
Question:
This woman has had multiple accidental drug accidental overdoses simply because she has no fear of any drug. Her most recent Psychiatrist has refused to return her phone calls after treating her for about a year. In fact, most doctors have refused to take her on as a patient due to drug addictions and I assume that she is a liability to them.
Her husband is considering a law suite, saying that a MD cannot refuse to treat his wife since she is a Medicare patient. I say that a doctor can refuse to treat anyone that he/she chooses. This woman will not follow drug directions and takes too many of any drug that is prescribed to her and when her supply runs out will steal her husband's meds, who is also an addict.
Answers:
A Psychiatrists can terminate treatment with anyone. As long as they have a reason to terminate treatment. It sounds like no one wants to treat her because she is non-compliant. It does not matter what type of insurance a person has they have to be invested in the treatment.
Other Answers:
yes they can refuse
I do not know USA regulations, but generally a MD will not treat psychiatric disorders.
I do not think you can force any psychiatrist to continue with his/her treatment of a patient. Whatever the reason might be.
I am not a doctor/psychiatrist but would thinkt that treating a bipolar with a drug addiction must be virtually impossible. The drugs will affect the bipolar and make treatment extremely difficult. Why does the husband not commit his wife if she is a danger to herself.
Yes, they can refuse a patient who refuses treatment.
Yes he can refuse to treat her for any reason and he has plenty.
The husband's threat to sue isn't much of a threat if he's on that much medication.
I'm surprised he's even aware of the situation.
The Oxycontin and xanax will keep him in a stupor all day.
He can't speak to a lawyer long enough to make sense.
No lawyer would take the case.
yes, and if the husband wants to follow through on it he could find himself and his wife up on medicare fraud-related charges, as the md will have records of how they are asking for prescription refills too soon and so are abusing the system via drugs....
I agree with some of the others. Honestly, I don't see, and I would highly doubt any court would see it, as a case where she is being denied care soley based on the fact that she is on Medicare. While medical offices have the right to deny certain types of insurance, choose not to file a certain kind, or not to accept Medicaid patients, once again, this is not the issue here.
This woman has a drug addiction and clearly has some mental health problems. It sounds like the reason she is not being treated is because she is abusing the medications she has been prescribed. Her mental illness diagnoses of manic-depressive disorder and anything else were probably founded and likely, but it would be possible for her in an altered state (either a manic or depressive state) to take an excessive amount of medication.
I see this as the problem and the reason that a doctor would refuse would be grounded on the basis of this woman abusing prescription medication. It does not sound as though this is even a Medicaid issue.
Her husband could try to press charges, but I honestly do not think it is going to get them very far at all. It sounds as though the doctors had every right to make the decisions they did, and also you have to keep in mind that most are very careful and law-abiding and will know the reasons to discontinue treatment if the woman was not following protocol and doing things to damage her body.
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