Q40

Hey everyone! I'm u/Q40, a founding moderator of r/HandSurgery.

This is our new home for all things related to Hand Surgery. We're excited to have you join us!

What to Post
Post anything that you think the community would find interesting, helpful, or inspiring. Feel free to share your thoughts, photos, or questions about hand surgery. However, please avoid asking personal health questions. This is not a forum for asking hand surgeons about your personal health situation.

Community Vibe
We're all about being friendly, constructive, and inclusive. Let's build a space where everyone feels comfortable sharing and connecting. There is NO doctor-patient relationship fo

Insurance companies are starting to deny these more and more frequently as "experimental" or "not medically necessary."

Can't say I blame them for this one. They're expensive. The objective literature isn't great, to say the least. It's arguably a placebo. AAOS CPGs don't recommend. ACR doesn't recommend. They're not exactly anti, but certainly don't support it.

What's your opinion?

Do you use it for early OA? Do you use it for late OA? Do you not use it at all? Do you use it knowing it's probably doing nothing? Have insurance co denials decreased your rate of usage? Or... have you not noticed these insurance denials? Or... Do you just give it out like candy bc patients come in beggin

For example, I had no idea about all the lucrative side hustles that we can take advantage of.

Not as much in terms of treatments that don't work or aren't available, but more in terms of the culture, environment, day-to-day life, and/or organizational structure of medicine as it is in 2023? Where expectation and reality were in different time zones.

For example, I was not expecting the rapid, sweeping corporatization of medicine as has occurred in the US in the last 5-10 years. Even many of my colleagues who joined a private practice (expecting to make partner) now answer to some clueless non-clinical middle-manager (and have no partnership track or advancement opportunities).

It's like there was a great big rug under the practice of medicine, and private equity bros and insurance