Uncomfortable insurance questions

[Double Maduro]

Lone_Gunman,

Asking gun questions by a physician is not a boundary violation. Boundary violations are determined by other physicians practicing the same specialty, and not by patients or other groups.

According to the article written by the doctor in the link I refferenced, it is.

American families may soon find themselves in this scenario. Social activists are taking their war on gun ownership to a new battleground: the doctor’s office. (1) The American Medical Association (AMA) (2), American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) (3), and American College of Physicians (ACP) (4) are urging doctors to probe their patients about guns in their homes. They profess concern for patient safety. But their ulterior motive is a political prejudice against guns and gun owners. And that places their interventions into the area of unethical physician conduct called boundary violations.

I suggest that we all read the literature on Boundary Violations.

DM

 

[Lone_Gunman]

Oh, I am aware of what that doctor says, but the fact remains that the boundaries of medical practice are determined by the practitioners.

I totally agree that the AMA and AAP are vehemently anti-gun. They consider guns a public health problem. They support handgun bans, registration, etc. Those organizations are controlled by liberal academicians who haven't practiced real medicine in years, if at all. They disguise their anti-gun bias with "studies" in the name of science.

The AMA should serve to advance real medicine and the problems doctors face, not advance the leadership's leftist politics. I feel so strongly about this that I resigned my AMA membership about 7 or 8 years ago.

Now that said, we get back to the issue of a boundary violation. Despite what the doctor in your link said, the boundaries of a medical practice are determined by other physicians. For example, lets say I am a general surgeon, and I decide to do a brain operation on a patient. I won't be allowed by any legitimate hospital to do that, because that is not considered within the scope of general surgery. What is and is not considered a part of medical practice is determined by other doctors.

The AMA and AAP have decided that it is OK to ask gun questions. If you accuse a doctor of a boundary violation because he asked that, your complaint will go no where. If you report it to your state medical board, they will briefly investigate it, and when they discover your accusation of boundary violation was because the doctor asked a gun question, they will dismiss the complaint. If you decide to sue, you won't find a lawyer who will take the case, because his experts will all say its ok to ask those questions. If you did find a lawyer to take your case, the defendant will be able to call on the AMA to provide a list of experts to testify its ok to ask gun questions.

If you can find a single case where a doctor was ever disciplined over gun questions, either by a state board or in a lawsuit, I would love to see it. I have never heard of such, and have followed this issue very closely.

The best way to deal with this problem is to simply find another doctor that doesnt ask those questions. Tell the offending doctor why you are leaving his practice. Hit him in the pocket book, and I assure you his behavior will eventually change.

Most doctors don't realize they are pushing a political agenda, and have been convinced it is totally ok to ask gun questions.

 

[MillCreek]

For those of us who work in healthcare, we are used to consulting the medical literature in order to research issues. The National Library of Medicine runs MedLine, the world's best index to the peer-reviewed reputable medical literature. The articles are indexed using key words that appear in the article.

When you go to MedLine and do a search using the terms 'boundary violation firearms' or 'boundary violation handguns' or 'boundary violation guns', you retrieve no citations. Using the terms 'boundary violations', you retrieve 121 citations. Using the term 'handguns', you retrieve 242 citations. This would suggest that the amount of medical literature studying or reporting on the issue of boundary violations in conjunction with firearms is essentially zilch. This further suggests that Dr. Wheeler's opinion is not widely shared, researched or reported on in the mainstream medical community.

Political repression by the worldwide medical community or Dr. Wheeler is an outlier? You be the judge. And perhaps if you do a MedLine search using the term 'handguns', you might be interested to read some of the many articles researching the issue of firearms storage as it correlates to suicides or accidental death.

 

[mountainclmbr]

If I was asked about gun ownership by my physician, I would explain why I was leaving forever. I would also address the doctor as Dr. Stalin. 150 million dead is cleaver (although evil) politics. It is not malpractice. Good for you doc....run left!!!!

 

[stealthmode]

not all policies cover guns or the whole amount their worth so you should check the policy you have for what coverage you might have if any. my policy only covers 2500 worth of firearms, which is only 1/10th of what i have. then find out about depreciation. insurance companies suck, thats all i have to say, forget everything else.

 

[pete f]

I agree. My policy states $2500 for guns, same for tools, sporting equipment, and hobbies without a added specific rider, or sub policy.

This is new but it did lower my rates significantly. SO I talked to my agent and asked who got to see my list of "here Steal ME!!!" things. and he said no one really. He has in his possession a DVD with my house, guns, boat and bikes, wifes stuff and other heirlooms documented. He keeps it in his safe. The other two copies are one in the burn box here and one in the safe box in the bank. I have a set value declared for my gun, my boat, the bikes, the Golf and skiing stuff etc. The rest just goes on the record as a file #, a value and premium.

The single best thing did for my house and home owners insurance was to install sprinklers when we did some remodleing. The basement is sprinkled completely, the halls and the kitchen and front entry are all sprinkled. The sprinkler is hooked to the FD and the alarm in the house for a presure drop is reallly loud, This cut my homeownrs from 1400 a year to under 500, paying off the sprinklers in under 4 years.

What sold me was there has not been a single fatality in a sprinkled building from smoke or fire in MN in the last 10 years.