Obamacare will question your sex life

[BMT (RIP)]

http://nypost.com/2013/09/15/obamaca...your-sex-life/

I wonder what would happen if you lied a little bit??



BMT

[Dusty]

Will the questionnaire even have a "Tyrannosaurus" block to check?

[Sdiver]

Originally Posted by Dusty

Will the questionnaire even have a "Tyrannosaurus" block to check?

Tyrannosaurus Sex ?!?!?!
I've often wondered how they were able to grab her hips and smack her ass with those little arms?

[NurseTim]

I remember having to take a sexual history in my NP training and thinking, "No one has EVER ask me any of this, EVER." This was in '06-'09, I guess they were indoctrinating us. When I was a chancher mechanic, I asked these questions, but not in cardiology and I don't anticipate asking them in hospice.

[Pete]

Once I check married why do I have to answer further?

[SF_BHT]

I was in FL TDY and had to get checked by a local Doc for a shoulder problem and he started asking some of these questions and if I had guns at home etc....

I asked why did he need to kow about my sexual activity and he said the state required a full history. I told him I was not a minor, not a ward of the state and I was paying not the state so let's move on. He then asked about firearms at home and if I had kids at home. Well I was not pleasant and I told him I carried guns at all the time and he got up tight...... Then I old him what my job was so please look at the shoulder and move on....

This was the craziest doctors visit ever. Guess I have out of the US toooo long.

[98G]

Originally Posted by Pete

Once I check married why do I have to answer further?

Pete -- Best answer of the day.

I was curious to the "change" occurring under Obamacare and found very few references to this other than a blog that features doctors trying to sort it out. Decent discussion there on Health Care called the The Incidental Economist. http://theincidentaleconomist.com

The MD who wrote this response: Aaron E. Carroll, MD, MS is a Professor of Pediatrics and Assistant Dean for Research Mentoring at Indiana University School of Medicine. He is also the director of the Center for Health Policy and Professionalism Research. He earned a BA in chemistry from Amherst College, an MD from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, and an MS in health services from the University of Washington, where he was also a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar.

He makes a great point which I highlighted in green below.

Doctors, not Obamacare, will ask you about your sex life

When I was a medical student, my teachers explained that – as physicians – we would be privy to people’s most private information. They would tell us things about themselves that they might tell no other human being. It was stressed that this was an honor, something to be noted and respected. We would keep those things secret, both by law and by social contract.

Sometimes, we would have to ask them questions about awkward things. During my month of adolescent training, we spend a large amount of time learning how to talk to kids about drugs, depression, eating disorders,violence, and – yes – sex. We learn to do it because it’s our job. We’re trying to keep people healthy, and all of these things are inherently risky. If they are occuring, we want to talk to adolescents about how to protect themselves and take care of themselves.

As an adult, when I go to a checkup, my doctors still asks me about my sexual health. They ask if I’m sexually active. The best among them have the courage to ask if I’m sexually active with anyone other than my wife. Why? Not because they’re prying busybodies; they ask because having multiple sexual partners greatly increases your risk of sexually transmitted infections. They’re looking out for my health, and want to advise me best on how to manage it.

Understand, please, that I can refuse to answer these questions. I can also lie. How would they know? But lying about my sexual activity to my physician would be akin to lying about my aches and pains. If I don’t tell the physician what’s going on, it’s hard for him or her to help me.

This is the way it’s always been.

So take this piece by Betsy McCaughey with a grain of salt:

Are you sexually active? If so, with one partner, multiple partners or same-sex partners?”

Be ready to answer those questions and more the next time you go to the doctor, whether it’s the dermatologist or the cardiologist and no matter if the questions are unrelated to why you’re seeking medical help. And you can thank the Obama health law.

“This is nasty business,” says New York cardiologist Dr. Adam Budzikowski. He called the sex questions “insensitive, stupid and very intrusive.” He couldn’t think of an occasion when a cardiologist would need such information — but he knows he’ll be pushed to ask for it.

The president’s “reforms” aim to turn doctors into government agents, pressuring them financially to ask questions they consider inappropriate and unnecessary, and to violate their Hippocratic Oath to keep patients’ records confidential.

Evidently Ms. McCaughey knows some pretty crappy doctors, because if you consider it “inappropriate and unnecessary” to talk to your patients about their sex lives, then you really shouldn’t be in the business. I agree that it’s not necessary to ask these questions at every visit for every complaint. But seriously, a cardiologist is saying he can’t imagine a single occasion when he might ask a patient about his sex life? Really? I’m speechless.

But it gets worse. Ms. McCaughey further misrepresents what the law does:

Embarrassing though it may be, you confide things to a doctor you wouldn’t tell anyone else. But this is entirely different.

Doctors and hospitals who don’t comply with the federal government’s electronic-health-records requirements forgo incentive payments now; starting in 2015, they’ll face financial penalties from Medicare and Medicaid. The Department of Health and Human Services has already paid out over $12.7 billion for these incentives.

There are federal EHR requirements. But those are part of the HITECH Act (which was part of ARRA), not Obamacare. What Obamacare introduces is that insurance must now reimburse physicians for preventive services. These include things like STI counseling (which is why more docs may ask about sex). They also include lots of other stuff, especially for women and children. I’m fine with this, because these things work. They have evidence behind them. That’s why they’re in there. For years, we’ve paid for tons of things that don’t work, while not paying for things that do. This tries to right that balance.

But, hey, if you don’t do those things as a doctor, you won’t be “penalized”. You won’t get paid for them, and your patients might suffer, but no Obamacare thugs will come to get you. Moreover, there’s nothing in the law that mandates that the answers to your questions be sent anywhere or to the government. They’re part of your medical record, as they always have been, and they’re protected by the same laws that have always protected your data.

There are legitimate reasons to dislike Obamacare. It amazes me how opponents of the law keep needing to invent ones that aren’t accurate in order to rail against it.

[98G]

Originally Posted by Brush Okie

If it burns when I piss he has a reason to ask these things. If I am going in for something unrelated it is none of his business. Also don't forget, all your health records are going to be computerized and in a government data base somewhere. Is it really their business the first time you got laid and how many times? There will be very little if any secrets between you and your MD anymore, it is now all part of govenment data base. Look up ICD-9 codes.

Again, the point is what the actual new law mandates. Just because it is in an editorial in the New York Post, I am not ready to jump in and accept her opinion of what the new legislation does without bit of research. Her track record for accuracy is not the highest I have seen. This MD researched the specifics which makes it easier for me to check. I will still check.

And to answer your question, back in 1979 I was asked those questions in my Army physical. So yes, the government made my sex life their business. Since I was too young/naive to have one, it was a short answer.

[PSM]

Down here on the border, docs long ago set up satellite offices in the Mexican border towns. Want to bet there will be a mass exodus. Of course, something will have to be done with the cartels. I wonder if a security force could be mustered for that job? Of course, shortly thereafter, the border either be sealed or SEALed.

Pat

[JHD]

Originally Posted by Brush Okie

Mrs. Okie is in the medical field at the administrative level and well versed in the mandates coming up. Your medical records will be in one form or another in a Govt data base. Look up what ICD-9 codes are.

Your absolutely right. Obamacare is forcing doctors from instead of focusing on the issue at hand, they are forcing them into a "check the box" mentality. That can't be good for the quality of healthcare people will receive. Furthermore, people are going to lie like a rug when they realize their medical history is no longer private. How can that be beneficial to receiving adequate healthcare? Link to article on database below.

http://http://rare.us/story/move-ove..._campaign=link