How bout 5 good and 5 bad reason, lol.....lets see
The good reasons
#1..the stronger the relationship with your doctor, the harder it be to discredit their findings about U.
#2.. the better your doctor knows U, the better chance they offer the proper medical advice to U
#3....the better U know your doctor, the more at ease-relax U would be with them for your examination.
#4..the doctor looks more professional by working inside a medical office building, vs a hotel room
#5 the doctor is able to have a larger staff to better serve their clients, maybe have more then one doctor working so help is more readily available
Now the bad.,hmmm
Well number 1 has to be the extra costs. My clinic wanted $100 for my exam and approval letter before this bonafida stuff started, I then let my card expired for a couple of months before I seen my doc again, that later visit also cost me $100 plus they wanted to see me again 6 weeks later for another fee of $50...which I did go and they made a copy of my new MM card and the doc gave me a brief exam. The 6 month check up also costs $50 but I could do it for free online but I don't see or even speak with my doctor.
Number 2 is the extra hassle of going to see my doctor, its a 40 min trip for me--good thing I have a good car to take and a drivers license and extra free time in my life to be able to go, not everybody has that luxury
Number 3 is the invasion of ones privacy..the local drunk needs not to explain why they want to drink alcohol yet we gotta prove marijuana is medical needed for us. Some people cringe on going to any doctors office, a hotel room they might well feel more comfortable in. If a person is very weak and only feels well enough to see others for a short amount of time each day, a hotel is a perfect place to go see a doctor, The person could even get a hotel room for the night inside that hotel the night before or after they see the doctor, maybe be on the same room floor the doctor is on, that means alot to those who can not walk very well or throw up easly
Number 4...i gotta get back with U on that, lol
What gets me is anybody, no matter how bad shape they might be in, needs to have this bonafide relationship with their doctor and have medical record to prove their problems. A person could have missing limbs, be way underweight from not eating, have a deadly form of cancer and still they gotta prove with medical records that they need MM. I'm no doctor yet I can tell just looking at some folks inside the compassion club that they are truly very ill-weak. I had a great time at the high times event in Flint last summer yet a few people over there made me feel sad just by how they looked. I'm looking forward to next years event but I doubt if those weak people there I seen there will still be alive come next summer, they looked that bad. It was nice to see a smile on their faces..that the ones that knew what was going on, some seen totally out of it and wasn't for their caretaker they would not have been there..why do those people have to prove anything. Why can't a doctor work inside a hotel room and or quickly approve those who have only months left to live ?
Ok, pretty good.
I'll respond to you because you took the time to think it through.
#1 Right on the money- A real relationship with the certification doctor goes a LONG way in court in a section 8.
#2 Good point, but most certifications are pretty binary, you have a condition or you don't, it would help you or, well I can't think of a good reason marijuana wouldn't be recommended to help you if you have a problem, but it is nice to have a specific target you are recommending it for.
#3 The bonafide relationship law has nothing to do with that, it has more to deal with personality.
#4 Yes, and the more professional the atmosphere, the harder it is for the prosecutor to claim the doc is back alley, but this isn't part of the bonafide dr/pt relationship law. It is just common sense.
#5 Again, not part of the bill, but a nice side effect of having an office.
The question was, what was the benefit of the Law, and that means the law as written.
Here are a couple I came up with:
1/ It is a professional evaluation based on standard medical practice, and it requires the same data that any doctor would need to make a considered medical judgement- records, visit with the patient, a chart is made, follow up is offered- just like any other medical visit.
2/ It defines the standard, follow the standard and the court cannot claim the relationship wasn't there. This specifically prevents prosecutors from trying to wing it every case, and gives the court a specific 'check list' to say yes or no.
3/ It protects the physician from the board. To say someone violated the standard of care, we must know what the standard of care is. To claim you followed the standard of care, again, you have to define it.
4/ It gives the regulatory authorities (like the medical board) the ability to specifically stop physicians that violate the standards, this in the end protects patients. Just as malpractice laws protect patients, just like the food and drug administration keeps bad drugs off the market to protect patients.
5/ It implies that physicians offering certifications meet a certain standard, thus letting patients going to these physicians take comfort in that they are getting good care from a qualified doctor.
Now your objections:
1/ Charges, that is up to the individual office and physician. We don't charge for follow up, others do. We offer on line follow for free, I review each one, sign it, act on it if needed (for example if you ask for a call), and scan it into your chart. If I need to show you did follow up, I can (and have in court- it saved a patient in Ionia Co. last week). You can also come in and see me face to face, for free, to do you follow up. The only reason we offer it on line is to save the patient time, expense, travel and allow them to do it on their schedule rather than mine.
2/ See my response above, we offer on line follow up for that very reason, to make it easy. The follow ups are not there to extract money, they are there for us to monitor you and protect you in court if needed. We want to make them as easy and cheap as possible so EVERY patient does them. Makes it much easier for us to defend you.
3/ As with response 1 and 2 above, it doesn't have to be that way- we can monitor you on line from home. As for 'having to do it' well sorry, but that is the normal way medicine works, we monitor our therapy be it cannabis or hypertension meds. As far as should you have to prove why you need cannabis, well the law says you have to have a condition, so you have to prove you have it. Just the way it is and the way the voters wanted it. They also wanted the legislature to be able to modify it with a super majority, and they got one and modified it, just as 63% of Michigan voters intended them to do (note the supermajority is there to make it harder, but they did it.)
Note on seeing people at hotel conference rooms. We do that to this day in a couple of areas. Why? Because we have patients in those areas and our nearest office is an hour away. We do it as a courtesy to the patients in the area, we do it to assess the need to have a full office in that area. They are done the same way there as they are done in the office, and fully backed up by a nearby (within an hour or so generally) office. Our offices show we are here to stay- and able and expect to do your followup. The traveling circus style hotel or dispensary clinics? Who knows if you can find them for your follow up, renewals or even to support you in court. You know where to find me if you need me. That's because I follow the bonafide laws, and my patients are protected. Folks like Proctor don't, and his is now looking at potential jail despite having a qualified conditions, simply because he went to Proctor instead of someone like me.
Dr. Bob
