Boston Globe story about Doctor trying to help patients and getting into trouble

[Guest guest]

Below are two Letters to the Editor that appeared in today's Boston

Sunday Globe about the story of the Doctor who was prescribing

medicine for patients and getting into trouble with the insurance

companies for doing so.

Mulvey son

Doctors' oath is to his patients, not health insurers

June 18, 2006

AS A former member of the Massachusetts Board of Registration in

Medicine, I would not have advised Dr. A. Hoffman to do what

he did (``Fed-up doctor sidesteps insurance company limits, " Page A1,

June 11), but as a longtime critic of our largely private health

insurance system, I understand the frustration that led him to break

the rules.

We are the only advanced country in the world that relies so heavily

on numerous private health insurance companies. They usually are more

costly and provide less coverage, and their high administrative costs

take much more money away from the actual delivery of healthcare than

Medicare.

My advice to Dr. Hoffman: Tell your patients, your legislative

representatives, and all your colleagues in the professional

societies you belong to that the system is the problem and must be

changed.

That would be more effective, and get you into much less trouble with

the law, than your valiant gesture of private protest.

Dr. ARNOLD S. RELMAN

Professor Emeritus

Harvard Medical School

Boston

MAY THERE be more doctors with the personal interest and commitment

to their patients and the integrity and guts to defy the often

unreasonable requirements and self interests of the insurance

establishment. Yet by publicly defending his advocacy, Dr. Hoffman

jeopardizes his practice.

I have been a patient of his for five years, and I know him well. I

know him as a doctor who calls patients unsolicited to check on their

well being; who does not make Friday appointments so that patients

with particular concerns may walk in ; and whose competence and say-

it-as-it-is attitude has gained him the utmost respect of his peers,

many of whom are leading specialists in the Boston medical community.

I look for support from the public and other general practitioners

for this doctor who provides care -- sometimes courageous care -- for

his patients.

JOHN H. ALEXANDER

Millis

© Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company