My thanks to Al Lewis of quizzify.com for bringing this story to my attention.
It seems that a 57-year-old woman who had a history of a double mastectomy for breast cancer was told by her employer that she had to get her annual screening mammogram or she would be fined each month she didn’t. She was fined $25 per week, according to her complaint, which equaled the amount this single mother was paying for her kid’s books.
She was contacted several times by the health plan and advised that she receive the required mammogram. She would be fined $25 per week until she did.
As if this isn’t bad enough — I can just hear this poor woman trying to explain to the young caller from the wellness plan why it made no sense that she get a mammogram (just in case a few readers don’t fully understand, a double mastectomy means she had both of her breasts cut off. There was nothing left to scan) — who was her employer?
Yale University. Yep, that one. Yale is now being sued for this and other complaints about its wellness program. It’s wellness vendor was apparently Healthmine. It also seems apparent that no one at Yale or Healthmine understands that doing more mammograms increase the total cost of healthcare, and therefore insurance costs. Here is one example of a cost-effectiveness analysis of mammograms.
If Yale doesn’t understand the stupidities of simplistic algorithmic approaches to healthcare, I guess I should be more understanding of companies that make cars or sell other stuff.
Now that the screening guidelines have changed to every other year; my patients continue to receive request from the hospital or diagnostic center for them to do a yearly mammogram. Go figure!!
Thanks for following my blog! Occasionally there is something worth reading. In the immortal words of the great philosopher Rick Perry, even a broken clock is right once a day.
I did contact Yale initially to see if they were interested in actually doing wellness for employees instead of to them, and mitigating further damages, but needless to say I never heard back. Looks like in New Haven, “pry, poke and prod” programs rule!