Third-party payment in the United States: Difference between revisions

Third-party payment for non-therapeutic or unnecessary medical procedures encourages the performance of such services, simply so the attending physician can collect a fee.

Third-party payment for injurious medically-unnecessary, non-therapeutic child [[circumcision]] in the United States keeps the incidence of non-therapeutic circumcision of children higher than any other industrial nation.<ref>{{REFweb

  |author-link=

}}</ref> The only party to benefit from such third-party payments is the receiving physician, or hospital.

The physicians that most commonly perform non-therapeutic infant circumcisions are obstetricians, pediatricians, and family doctors.  They formed an agreement in 2007 to produce a new statement with the AAP as the lead. It was published in 2012 but was poorly received because of its evident omissions of facts. The AAP statement was not re-affirmed is accordance with AAP policy, so it expired on August 31, 2017. The AAP has not replaced the failed 2012 policy statement so it now has ''no'' official policy regarding male circumcision.

The government policy regarding male circumcision seems to have been formulated by the military services at the time of World War I. It appears to have been based on the 1914 article of [[Abraham L. Wolbarst]], M.D., an ardent Jewish promoter of circumcision, who published an opinion-based paper in 1914 in the ''Journal of the American Medical Association'' that promoted claimed health benefits of circumcision.<ref name="wolbarst1914">{{REFjournal

The unspoken and unwritten official U.S. Government policy seems to be that it is clear every male needs a circumcision, so support for free circumcision is provided without any questions being asked. This had been the policy of the military services since about 1917 when the United States intervened in the World War. When the Congress created the Medicare and Medicaid programs in 1965, the ''every male needs a circumcision'' policy was adopted. About 45 percent of births in the [[United States]] are covered by Medicaid and in most states free harmful and unnecessary coverage of infant circumcisions are provided. United States Medicaid is one of the largest third-party payers for medically-unnecessary, non-therapeutic circumcision.<ref name="adler2011>{{REFjournal

* Medicare (For men 65 and over).

* Medicaid (For less prosperous Americans and now illegal immigrants).

* Indian Health Service (for indigenous people although circumcision is not part of their culture.)

* Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) (For children who do not qualify for Medicaid).

* Military Medical Services (For active duty personnel.)

* Tristar (for military dependents.)

* Federal employee's health insurance (For federal employees and their dependents.)

* President's Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) (For every male who lives in Africa.)

 

The [[American Academy of Pediatrics]] created its failed 2012 policy statement (expired in 2017) specifically to preserve and protect third party payment to medical doctors.