What happens when a mandate is exerted????

Here is a quote from one of my readers...

The ACOG mandate for CF testing came out while I was getting my genetic counseling degree. I gave quite a few counseling session to pregnant women regarding CF testing. Unfort6unatley that was in a high-risk OB office where the patients were already undergoing some form of prenatal screening through our office. I know at the hospital medical clinics, no counselor was available to do the CF counseling. It was a big mess.

Then, in 2006 when I was pregnant I actually requested the CF carrier test for myself and my OB did not even talk to me about the test at all. She just wrote a script to get my blood drawn. No family history was taken, no explanation was given about what the test was screening for or what it meant if I was a carrier. I was very disappointed with how it was handled.

A mandate from a medical specialty like the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology (ACOG) can be very tough on physicians.....Thus they push back and try to prevent mandates. Why is it tough?

1. It increases physician workload to counsel. Something most physicians don't have time to do.
2. The services mandated often cost money......Sometimes that money comes out of MDs capitation (pay) ....
3. It scares physicians, simply because it creates another liability risk for malpractice.

I am certain there are others.....But hopefully you can see why alot of physicians who never learned genetics in medical school or residency are fighting tooth and nail against Genomic Medicine.......

What happens when we introduce MORE mandates, yet don't pay our doctors to carry them out? The shennanigans my readers tell me about, that's what happens!!!! Testing without counseling....YIKES!!! Delivering results via secretaries??? Yahtzee!!!
But remember....the testing is the mandate.......not the counseling.....SAD.

The Sherpa Says: I was just at Coriell the other day talking to their staff about this problem. They were a wonderful crowd....In the end I submitted my sample for their research.....Imagine, the Navigenics service.......for free!!!!!!