November 27, 2025 • 20 mins
Listen in as host Steve Kuker, President of Senior Care Consulting, visits with Gerald Lynn, author of the book “Surviving the US Healthcare System”. Gerald highlights some disturbing statistics and realities of our healthcare system as well as how to address these issues with information from various chapters in his book. This book can be used as a manual or guide you can refer to over and over again as needed. “Surviving the US Healthcare System” can be purchased at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or at AuthorGeraldLynn.com. (800) 331-6445
www.SeniorCareLive.com
www.facebook.com/SeniorCareLive
www.linkedin.com/in/stevekuker
www.twitter.com/SeniorCareLive
www.SeniorCareConsulting.com
www.SeniorCareLive.com
www.facebook.com/SeniorCareLive
www.linkedin.com/in/stevekuker
www.twitter.com/SeniorCareLive
www.SeniorCareConsulting.com
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Are you caring for an aging loved one? Are you
a senior searching for answers? Welcome to Senior Care Live,
a program dedicated to you, providing information, education and resources
for seniors and their caregivers. And now America's senior care consultant,
Steve Keecker.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Hello, and welcome to Senior Care Live. I'm Steve Keeker,
your senior care consultant, and I really appreciate you tuning
in today. We have a very interesting program today with
my special guest. He is mister Gerald Lynn, and he
has written a very very interesting book. It's called Surviving
(00:44):
the US Healthcare System. And with that, Gerald, welcome to
Senior Care Live.
Speaker 3 (00:50):
Thanks Steve.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Let's just jump right in here and you and I,
like I said, you know, we easily spoke for an hour,
hour and a half on the phone about this. It's
just this is a very compelling book. So tell us
about your background and then what led to writing this
very interesting book.
Speaker 3 (01:10):
Yeah. I was a pharmaceutical rep for twenty seven years,
worked for multiple companies selling multiple different drugs. And I
also took care of a friend of mine seventy two
years old for about eight months of my life. He
had a stroke and a heart attack, and I also
was with my mom through the end of her life hospice, etc.
So I got a well rounded background and saw things
(01:32):
in the system that you won't see if you're in
like a doctor or a nurse, et cetera. I got
to talk to the people in the background that would
be office managers, of medical assistance, everybody that you can
think of that makes up healthcare. And the reason why
I wrote the book is I got to a point.
It started twelve years ago. People tell me that I
just saw these cracks in the system and I always
(01:53):
cared about patient, not about the medications that I sold,
and patients were just getting left behind. Insurance industry is
a big problem, and I just see I saw the
system get worse and worse. Nineteen nineties when I started,
and I finally said, you know, I got a I'm
semi retired. I got out of the industry, and it's
I just had to put my third thoughts down to
(02:14):
paper and help some people. That's my intention.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
Excellent Again, the book is called Surviving the US Healthcare System,
and gerald, I think the three ways to get that.
Speaker 3 (02:26):
Yeah, you can get it on Amazon. You can get
it on Barnes and Noble, and you want to go
to my you can also go to my site, authorgerald
Lynn dot com. Now you want to put my name in,
It's Gerald Lynn c MR and that stands for Certified
Medical Representative and then you can find every set of
social media you want on me.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
Okay, And the website is very very good. And again
this is very compelling. It will your eyebrows going to
go up, like, oh, I hey, and I didn't realize that.
I didn't know that, or maybe I didn't look at
it look at it that way. So obviously it's not
a perfect system. You found all the cracks and the
blemishes and where people could fall through the cracks and
(03:07):
maybe not receive the care or or just all the
problems that we've discussed earlier, so significant problems with the
healthcare system. And you had mentioned that Americans are just
confused and many times uninformed about how their healthcare system works.
Speaker 3 (03:23):
Well, DHS has a statistic that only twelve percent of
adults in the United States have proficient literacy.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
In their healthcare Now what does that mean?
Speaker 3 (03:34):
They just don't know, They don't know aside from what
to do when things hit them for example, you have
a health insurance plan from your employer. Do they know
everything and how everything works. No, they get hit in
the face when they get sick. And that's pretty much.
So people don't know what they can do, what they
can't do. Actually, have a chapter on advocacy because people
(03:56):
just don't know. When they're told no, they just accept
it and they go on from there. And actually, doctors
are the number one trusted profession in the United States.
Not that they should or shouldn't be, but when a
doctor tells you, hey, this is so no question, no
second opinion. So people just don't know what to do.
I guess, and my book is a manual and a
guide to know what to do, what to look out for,
(04:20):
when to be concerned. Well, so that's what that means.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
Absolutely. Here's an example. So this year, I've consumed a
lot of healthcare, use a lot of benefits, et cetera.
And you know if you say, okay, well I need
to set up an MRI or a a CT scan, cascin.
And so you just go out and just pick a place, Well,
guess what according to your healthcare insurance, are they an
(04:45):
in network provider? Are they a kind of a second
tier provider or if they're the third tier, that just
made you're paying less for in network more for a
second tier, and then you're going to pay almost cash
out of pocket for the third and people don't know
what provider is in what tier. And that's just one
one of the probably one hundred different examples.
Speaker 3 (05:08):
Well, yeah, that that that pulls you back to insurance.
And you got to remember, insurance is health Insurance is
not healthcare. It's just like any other kind of insurance
you have in your life, your home, your car. It's
there when things break and then it's there to help
you pay for them. So but the rules and regulations, yes,
it depends on the quality of your of your plan.
(05:29):
The more expensive PPO plans, you don't need what's called
the referral, which means your doctor has to justify why
you need something you don't need permission, you don't tie
up your physician. And yes, limiting YouTube and this happens
to our seniors card have been on the managed care
Medicare advantage plans. You're limited to the list. If you
(05:49):
don't like your doctor, well that's the list, and then
if you go someplace else, you may very well have
to pay out of pocket, and those are the more
restrictive plans that we have. So yeah, you're one hundred percent.
That's stuff that I go into my book on the
chapter on healthcare, that's chapter three. It's it's a big
it's a big maze of things to go through, and
my book navigates, Okay, this has happened, you can't get
(06:12):
these results. Watch out for this because this is how
it might go. And that goes back to literacy. They
don't understand when the process doesn't work and they can't
get what they need and they have to wait forever
to see somebody.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
In chapter one and eight addresses this, uh, this concern
or this issue. Is that correct?
Speaker 3 (06:30):
Yes, yes, I I hit these topics right right up
at the beginning, and that's where I got that statistic
about healthcare literacy.
Speaker 2 (06:39):
Okay, the book is Surviving the US Healthcare System by
Gerald Lynn, And you could go on Amazon and just
just type in Gerald G E R A L D
Lynn L y n N and then put a CMR
after that, and and you're gonna you're gonna find it easily.
You could also find all the social media uh networks
that he's involved. You could go to Barnes and Noble
(07:01):
to find the book, or you could go directly to
his website, author Gerald Lynn dot com. And there's a
there's a high rate of death or a permanent disability
due to misdiagnoses in the US, and you talk about
that in chapters five, in chapters eight, Yeah.
Speaker 3 (07:22):
There's a statistic that I have. I didn't mention it
in the book because I saw it even it was
even more serious than I thought. JOHNS Hopkins in twenty
twenty three came out with a statistic that's seven hundred
and ninety five thousand Americans a year either die or
of permanent disability from a misdiagnosis and a mistake. And
(07:42):
the problem with a misdiagnosis is not only is are
they wrong. They probably are treating you for a disease
you don't have, and what they're going to use to
treat you. And I've heard this in a number of instances,
Like since I wrote the book, I get stories from everyone.
The medications they use might make you worse, and it
takes time between offices, there's communication issues. But yeah, that's
(08:05):
a crazy number I think every year.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
Yeah, there's no doubt about it, and Jerald, I love
that you set this book up. This is not some
kind of a novel that you read and you're like, Okay,
that was wonderful. I enjoyed that, and you put it
on the shelf. This has really written more as a
manual that you can go back and refer to. Is
that correct?
Speaker 3 (08:25):
Yes, if you go to each chapter. Matter of fact,
I know several people that read it. One of them
was the doctor that I know. He said it was
nice because he didn't want to read the book cover
to cover because the first four chapters are for people
that don't know the system. They don't know insurance, they
don't know this or that. But you can go to
the hospital section, or you need more care like long
term care and things you have to do after the hospital,
(08:46):
or advocacy, so you go to the table contents. You
can pick what you want to read right then, and
if something happens in your life, you can go, oh
my mom's in the hospital, go right to the hospital section.
So you're one hundred percent right, it's a manual.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
Okay, And give us the number of individuals that either
you know have experienced death or permanent disability due to
a misdiagnosis.
Speaker 3 (09:09):
Seven hundred and ninety five thousand, and that's every year.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
That's an annual number.
Speaker 3 (09:14):
That's that's not an AGRAG and that's from JOHNS Hopkins.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
Oh my gosh, yeah, I know. Take that in right, Yeah, yeah,
that that is that is unbelievable. Again, if this is
catching your attention like it's catching mine, and Gerald, I'm
I'm going to order the book and I'm really looking
forward to uh to to reading this thing cover to cover.
And like you said, referring to the book as almost
(09:40):
like emmanuals, you can go back and you can check
out different chapters. And so for a listening audience, here's
the book Against Surviving the US Healthcare System and again
author Gerald Lynn cm R. What does a CMR stand for? Again, Jiell.
Speaker 3 (09:55):
I went to before I was a pharmaceutical rep, before
the computers in Google, and I got certified. Took me
two years. I couldn't look things up usually, you couldn't
call somebody, so I had to know my stuff.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
You had to know things well.
Speaker 3 (10:11):
Well, I was. I was thought of as as a resource.
Now you didn't have to get that. But back then,
pharmaceutical companies, some of them paid for them like piser.
They I had to ask for them to pay for
it took me two years. Matter of fact, when I started,
I how do you used to go to the medical
school in Tucson, Arizona to take Then they got computers
to do that. But yeah, so I wanted to know
what I didn't know.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
And now the Senior Care Live Question of the Week,
Generic drugs work exactly the same as the original formulation,
Is that stay matrue or false? What do you think?
Speaker 1 (10:43):
You're listening to Senior Care Live on the Senior Care
Broadcasting Network. For more information, visit seniorcare Live dot com.
Speaker 4 (10:51):
We'll have more with Steve coming up next. Welcome back.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
You're listening to Senior Care Live on the Senior Care
Broadcasting Network. For more information, visit seniorcare Live dot com.
Now back to the Senior Care Live Question of the Week.
Generic drugs work exactly the same as the original formulation.
Is that statement true or false? And the answer is false? Unbelievably,
(11:36):
Gerald tells me the answer is false. And Gerald, what
in the world are you talking about? Because I always
I've been told for my entire life. Oh, just get
to generic. It's the same thing. You're saying it is not.
Speaker 3 (11:48):
Well, it is the same thing in that it is
the same molecule. So if you're getting reservistatin, for example,
it is the molecule reservice statin. What changes it? And
let me give you something that's actually from the FDA.
Generic drugs can vary eighty to one and twenty five
percent from the branded medication. They are not tested in people.
(12:13):
They take the package insert information. It's supposed to be
the same, right, So they take the information that's in
the little white paper that you get with the medicine
and they just use it to the generic. Now, the
difference what the generics are. There are different binders, fillers,
and other ingredients to make it to where sometimes they
will not work at all. And what's interesting about that
(12:36):
is a generic manufacturer's drug may not work as well
as the other manufacturer's drugs, So generics aren't even equivalent
to themselves. And what happens is you get off of
what's called steady state, which means you're already stable on
this and everything's working fine, and unless you have something
like good or high blood pressure, you can't recognize that
(12:59):
it's not working. And I had this happen with my
smp re resol. This is a certain specific manufacturer's brand
of generic. It will not work at all. Wow, that's
because of the binders, fillers and how your body metabolizes things.
And that's every human being is different and we have
different ways of making this, certain drugs that don't even
work in me, and that happens to other people as well.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
But yeah, okay, so guaranteed we just blew thousands of
minds right there. So I had no idea. So look,
we're speaking today with author and pharmacy pharmaceutical represent well
former pharmaceutical representative, right, you're you're kind of the semi
retired at this point. But Gerald Lynn, and he's written
(13:42):
a compelling book, Surviving the US Healthcare System. You can
pick it up on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, just go
directly to Gerald's site. It's author Gerald Lynn, g E
r A L D L y n N author Gerald
Lynn dot com. You know how many times it seems
(14:03):
difficult to get in to see your doctor right away.
You may have to wait for you know, forever maybe
to see a specialist or get a timely test result.
Why is that?
Speaker 3 (14:13):
Well, first of all, there aren't enough doctors. Yeah, it
costs over half of it calls up over half a
million dollars dollars to become a doctor. It takes eight
to twelve years. A lot of people don't want to
do that, but that and manage care organizations. Many doctors,
especially new ones, they're not working for themselves. They're working
for somebody else. And when you're working for somebody else,
(14:35):
they want they have quotas as to how many people
you need to see today. Usually it's about fifteen. You
can't do great medicine see impatients every fifteen minutes, but
that's really where it is, so they pack people in. Now.
There's another caveat to that too. If you don't have
an established doctor, you will not get in to see
a practice. You have to go to urgent care because
they have to see you first. Takes an hour. They
(14:55):
do a physical. So you can't just call up a
doctor and say, hey, doctor Jones, I heard you were
good for my friends, so and so I need to
see you today. Won't happen.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
They have to establish you as a new patient, which
takes them. That's a much longer initial appointment, and they
may not have that for two three months.
Speaker 3 (15:09):
Out exactly if it's a specialist. Especially I had an
issue with the gurology office. I was an established patient.
Oh yeah, well he can't see you have to see
a PA. Well when can you see me? Well maybe
for your next physical?
Speaker 2 (15:23):
Yeah, next year.
Speaker 3 (15:24):
Yes, So you see a physician's assistant or a nurse practitioner.
Not that they're bad. The ones that are older are better.
They've been around, they've experienced. That's just because of experience.
Younger people they have not seen some things, and that's
where that's where you get misdiagnosed.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
This from oh boy, all right, and you address this
issue in chapter two yep, yep, okay, and then communication
issues between doctors and hospitals or maybe doctor to doctor.
This occurs all the time, too often.
Speaker 3 (15:55):
Well, let's explain why everybody. Probably here's the term electronic
medical records systems. The problem is when they were instituted,
that the offices were not given enough money. They said,
fifty thousand dollars is what they got. Five hundred thousands
probably more like it. But the problem is none of
the systems talk to each other unless you're in the
same system. The VA is a great example I wish
(16:16):
everybody would work that way. If you're in the VA system,
anywhere you go, they can find your records. In the
United States, you go to a hospital and you're not
a patient of one of their offshoots, you're blind. They
don't have your records, they don't know what drugs you're on.
You're in there for treatment of something, and if you're
not conscious especially or can't tell them, that's what the
(16:37):
problem is. And then people don't realize either. The main
form of communication between doctors, offices, and hospitals and between
each other are still fax machines.
Speaker 2 (16:46):
See which blows my mind. I think it's a positive
in a huge negative. But you're right, you're right. We
have a lot of silos around here, healthcare silos. In
our neck of the woods, in the Kansas City area,
the two big EMRs would be EPIC and Soner and
you if you were in Soerner now you're in EPIC.
These two systems do not communicate with each other period
(17:08):
And you're right now you're stuck in a silo and
you and you have communication issues big time. So you
addressed that in chapter five and eleven.
Speaker 3 (17:18):
Now let me take that up just one mom, okay, god, sure, okay.
Just so you have two different doctors, you have a
cardiologist and your primary care doctor. You have the same system.
If one of them doesn't put in the new medicine
that you would just started on, chances are that won't happen.
But if they don't, then the other office doesn't know,
so you may have a drug interaction because one doesn't
know what the other one did if it wasn't put
into the computer.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
Yep, yep, absolutely, And I live this with my own grandmother.
This has been quite a long time ago, but she
was on like two over the countermeds. Went to the hospital,
they added a bunch, went to the rehab hospital, they
added a bunch, and by the time she was discharged
after about a month long, you know, a hospitalization between
(17:59):
the two back to her assistant living community, she was
on about a page and a half of medications, over
five thousand dollars a month, and she felt horrible.
Speaker 3 (18:08):
How many duplicate is? Well?
Speaker 2 (18:10):
Good, good question. So I had to call the doctor
and say, look, if it doesn't kill her, take it off,
take it off of her. And he got it down
to about one thousand dollars and I guess what, she
felt much better. She felt much better because she was
just being completely over medicated. And then you mentioned that
health insurance companies fight against your doctor instead of letting
(18:34):
you get the care that you need. And why is that?
Speaker 3 (18:38):
Once again, it's reactive. It's reacted to what's just happened.
Just like your car, you have an accident. Okay, now
you can have this care. Well, if you're not sick already,
many insurances will not let you get certain tests. You say,
I want this or that. Nope, sorry, until you're sick,
we can't justify giving you the test. You know, recently
the Affordable Care Act came up and we just had
(18:59):
a government shutdown supposedly over it. But just think of this.
If it's affordable, it should be able to stand on
its loan. But what is that. It's an insurance plan
you could get yourself, but you can't afford it. Well,
who controls the cost of that insurance plan? The premiums
are set by insurance companies, not the government. Yep, easy enough.
That that's who controls cost. And that's subsidizing something that's
(19:20):
controlled by another entity that is not yours yet. Yeah,
I'm just going to pay somebody to give me what
I should get because they charge me too much. He
subsidize me buying a new car.
Speaker 2 (19:29):
So, so many issues, Jerald, this has been fascinating. The book.
Get the book Surviving the US Healthcare System by Gerald
Lynn and Gerald. Thanks so much for being on today.
I really appreciate it very much. Thank you so much.
Speaker 3 (19:41):
You're welcome.
Speaker 1 (19:44):
You're listening to Senior Care Live on the Senior Care
Broadcasting Network. Have a question, visit seniorcare live dot com.
Stick around. We'll have more with Steve coming up now.
Are you caring for an aging loved one? Are you
a senior searching for answers? Welcome to Senior Care Live,
a program dedicated to you, providing information, education and resources
for seniors and their caregivers. And now America's senior care consultant,
Steve Keecker.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Hello, and welcome to Senior Care Live. I'm Steve Keeker,
your senior care consultant, and I really appreciate you tuning
in today. We have a very interesting program today with
my special guest. He is mister Gerald Lynn, and he
has written a very very interesting book. It's called Surviving
(00:44):
the US Healthcare System. And with that, Gerald, welcome to
Senior Care Live.
Speaker 3 (00:50):
Thanks Steve.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Let's just jump right in here and you and I,
like I said, you know, we easily spoke for an hour,
hour and a half on the phone about this. It's
just this is a very compelling book. So tell us
about your background and then what led to writing this
very interesting book.
Speaker 3 (01:10):
Yeah. I was a pharmaceutical rep for twenty seven years,
worked for multiple companies selling multiple different drugs. And I
also took care of a friend of mine seventy two
years old for about eight months of my life. He
had a stroke and a heart attack, and I also
was with my mom through the end of her life hospice, etc.
So I got a well rounded background and saw things
(01:32):
in the system that you won't see if you're in
like a doctor or a nurse, et cetera. I got
to talk to the people in the background that would
be office managers, of medical assistance, everybody that you can
think of that makes up healthcare. And the reason why
I wrote the book is I got to a point.
It started twelve years ago. People tell me that I
just saw these cracks in the system and I always
(01:53):
cared about patient, not about the medications that I sold,
and patients were just getting left behind. Insurance industry is
a big problem, and I just see I saw the
system get worse and worse. Nineteen nineties when I started,
and I finally said, you know, I got a I'm
semi retired. I got out of the industry, and it's
I just had to put my third thoughts down to
(02:14):
paper and help some people. That's my intention.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
Excellent Again, the book is called Surviving the US Healthcare System,
and gerald, I think the three ways to get that.
Speaker 3 (02:26):
Yeah, you can get it on Amazon. You can get
it on Barnes and Noble, and you want to go
to my you can also go to my site, authorgerald
Lynn dot com. Now you want to put my name in,
It's Gerald Lynn c MR and that stands for Certified
Medical Representative and then you can find every set of
social media you want on me.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
Okay, And the website is very very good. And again
this is very compelling. It will your eyebrows going to
go up, like, oh, I hey, and I didn't realize that.
I didn't know that, or maybe I didn't look at
it look at it that way. So obviously it's not
a perfect system. You found all the cracks and the
blemishes and where people could fall through the cracks and
(03:07):
maybe not receive the care or or just all the
problems that we've discussed earlier, so significant problems with the
healthcare system. And you had mentioned that Americans are just
confused and many times uninformed about how their healthcare system works.
Speaker 3 (03:23):
Well, DHS has a statistic that only twelve percent of
adults in the United States have proficient literacy.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
In their healthcare Now what does that mean?
Speaker 3 (03:34):
They just don't know, They don't know aside from what
to do when things hit them for example, you have
a health insurance plan from your employer. Do they know
everything and how everything works. No, they get hit in
the face when they get sick. And that's pretty much.
So people don't know what they can do, what they
can't do. Actually, have a chapter on advocacy because people
(03:56):
just don't know. When they're told no, they just accept
it and they go on from there. And actually, doctors
are the number one trusted profession in the United States.
Not that they should or shouldn't be, but when a
doctor tells you, hey, this is so no question, no
second opinion. So people just don't know what to do.
I guess, and my book is a manual and a
guide to know what to do, what to look out for,
(04:20):
when to be concerned. Well, so that's what that means.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
Absolutely. Here's an example. So this year, I've consumed a
lot of healthcare, use a lot of benefits, et cetera.
And you know if you say, okay, well I need
to set up an MRI or a a CT scan, cascin.
And so you just go out and just pick a place, Well,
guess what according to your healthcare insurance, are they an
(04:45):
in network provider? Are they a kind of a second
tier provider or if they're the third tier, that just
made you're paying less for in network more for a
second tier, and then you're going to pay almost cash
out of pocket for the third and people don't know
what provider is in what tier. And that's just one
one of the probably one hundred different examples.
Speaker 3 (05:08):
Well, yeah, that that that pulls you back to insurance.
And you got to remember, insurance is health Insurance is
not healthcare. It's just like any other kind of insurance
you have in your life, your home, your car. It's
there when things break and then it's there to help
you pay for them. So but the rules and regulations, yes,
it depends on the quality of your of your plan.
(05:29):
The more expensive PPO plans, you don't need what's called
the referral, which means your doctor has to justify why
you need something you don't need permission, you don't tie
up your physician. And yes, limiting YouTube and this happens
to our seniors card have been on the managed care
Medicare advantage plans. You're limited to the list. If you
(05:49):
don't like your doctor, well that's the list, and then
if you go someplace else, you may very well have
to pay out of pocket, and those are the more
restrictive plans that we have. So yeah, you're one hundred percent.
That's stuff that I go into my book on the
chapter on healthcare, that's chapter three. It's it's a big
it's a big maze of things to go through, and
my book navigates, Okay, this has happened, you can't get
(06:12):
these results. Watch out for this because this is how
it might go. And that goes back to literacy. They
don't understand when the process doesn't work and they can't
get what they need and they have to wait forever
to see somebody.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
In chapter one and eight addresses this, uh, this concern
or this issue. Is that correct?
Speaker 3 (06:30):
Yes, yes, I I hit these topics right right up
at the beginning, and that's where I got that statistic
about healthcare literacy.
Speaker 2 (06:39):
Okay, the book is Surviving the US Healthcare System by
Gerald Lynn, And you could go on Amazon and just
just type in Gerald G E R A L D
Lynn L y n N and then put a CMR
after that, and and you're gonna you're gonna find it easily.
You could also find all the social media uh networks
that he's involved. You could go to Barnes and Noble
(07:01):
to find the book, or you could go directly to
his website, author Gerald Lynn dot com. And there's a
there's a high rate of death or a permanent disability
due to misdiagnoses in the US, and you talk about
that in chapters five, in chapters eight, Yeah.
Speaker 3 (07:22):
There's a statistic that I have. I didn't mention it
in the book because I saw it even it was
even more serious than I thought. JOHNS Hopkins in twenty
twenty three came out with a statistic that's seven hundred
and ninety five thousand Americans a year either die or
of permanent disability from a misdiagnosis and a mistake. And
(07:42):
the problem with a misdiagnosis is not only is are
they wrong. They probably are treating you for a disease
you don't have, and what they're going to use to
treat you. And I've heard this in a number of instances,
Like since I wrote the book, I get stories from everyone.
The medications they use might make you worse, and it
takes time between offices, there's communication issues. But yeah, that's
(08:05):
a crazy number I think every year.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
Yeah, there's no doubt about it, and Jerald, I love
that you set this book up. This is not some
kind of a novel that you read and you're like, Okay,
that was wonderful. I enjoyed that, and you put it
on the shelf. This has really written more as a
manual that you can go back and refer to. Is
that correct?
Speaker 3 (08:25):
Yes, if you go to each chapter. Matter of fact,
I know several people that read it. One of them
was the doctor that I know. He said it was
nice because he didn't want to read the book cover
to cover because the first four chapters are for people
that don't know the system. They don't know insurance, they
don't know this or that. But you can go to
the hospital section, or you need more care like long
term care and things you have to do after the hospital,
(08:46):
or advocacy, so you go to the table contents. You
can pick what you want to read right then, and
if something happens in your life, you can go, oh
my mom's in the hospital, go right to the hospital section.
So you're one hundred percent right, it's a manual.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
Okay, And give us the number of individuals that either
you know have experienced death or permanent disability due to
a misdiagnosis.
Speaker 3 (09:09):
Seven hundred and ninety five thousand, and that's every year.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
That's an annual number.
Speaker 3 (09:14):
That's that's not an AGRAG and that's from JOHNS Hopkins.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
Oh my gosh, yeah, I know. Take that in right, Yeah, yeah,
that that is that is unbelievable. Again, if this is
catching your attention like it's catching mine, and Gerald, I'm
I'm going to order the book and I'm really looking
forward to uh to to reading this thing cover to cover.
And like you said, referring to the book as almost
(09:40):
like emmanuals, you can go back and you can check
out different chapters. And so for a listening audience, here's
the book Against Surviving the US Healthcare System and again
author Gerald Lynn cm R. What does a CMR stand for? Again, Jiell.
Speaker 3 (09:55):
I went to before I was a pharmaceutical rep, before
the computers in Google, and I got certified. Took me
two years. I couldn't look things up usually, you couldn't
call somebody, so I had to know my stuff.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
You had to know things well.
Speaker 3 (10:11):
Well, I was. I was thought of as as a resource.
Now you didn't have to get that. But back then,
pharmaceutical companies, some of them paid for them like piser.
They I had to ask for them to pay for
it took me two years. Matter of fact, when I started,
I how do you used to go to the medical
school in Tucson, Arizona to take Then they got computers
to do that. But yeah, so I wanted to know
what I didn't know.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
And now the Senior Care Live Question of the Week,
Generic drugs work exactly the same as the original formulation,
Is that stay matrue or false? What do you think?
Speaker 1 (10:43):
You're listening to Senior Care Live on the Senior Care
Broadcasting Network. For more information, visit seniorcare Live dot com.
Speaker 4 (10:51):
We'll have more with Steve coming up next. Welcome back.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
You're listening to Senior Care Live on the Senior Care
Broadcasting Network. For more information, visit seniorcare Live dot com.
Now back to the Senior Care Live Question of the Week.
Generic drugs work exactly the same as the original formulation.
Is that statement true or false? And the answer is false? Unbelievably,
(11:36):
Gerald tells me the answer is false. And Gerald, what
in the world are you talking about? Because I always
I've been told for my entire life. Oh, just get
to generic. It's the same thing. You're saying it is not.
Speaker 3 (11:48):
Well, it is the same thing in that it is
the same molecule. So if you're getting reservistatin, for example,
it is the molecule reservice statin. What changes it? And
let me give you something that's actually from the FDA.
Generic drugs can vary eighty to one and twenty five
percent from the branded medication. They are not tested in people.
(12:13):
They take the package insert information. It's supposed to be
the same, right, So they take the information that's in
the little white paper that you get with the medicine
and they just use it to the generic. Now, the
difference what the generics are. There are different binders, fillers,
and other ingredients to make it to where sometimes they
will not work at all. And what's interesting about that
(12:36):
is a generic manufacturer's drug may not work as well
as the other manufacturer's drugs, So generics aren't even equivalent
to themselves. And what happens is you get off of
what's called steady state, which means you're already stable on
this and everything's working fine, and unless you have something
like good or high blood pressure, you can't recognize that
(12:59):
it's not working. And I had this happen with my
smp re resol. This is a certain specific manufacturer's brand
of generic. It will not work at all. Wow, that's
because of the binders, fillers and how your body metabolizes things.
And that's every human being is different and we have
different ways of making this, certain drugs that don't even
work in me, and that happens to other people as well.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
But yeah, okay, so guaranteed we just blew thousands of
minds right there. So I had no idea. So look,
we're speaking today with author and pharmacy pharmaceutical represent well
former pharmaceutical representative, right, you're you're kind of the semi
retired at this point. But Gerald Lynn, and he's written
(13:42):
a compelling book, Surviving the US Healthcare System. You can
pick it up on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, just go
directly to Gerald's site. It's author Gerald Lynn, g E
r A L D L y n N author Gerald
Lynn dot com. You know how many times it seems
(14:03):
difficult to get in to see your doctor right away.
You may have to wait for you know, forever maybe
to see a specialist or get a timely test result.
Why is that?
Speaker 3 (14:13):
Well, first of all, there aren't enough doctors. Yeah, it
costs over half of it calls up over half a
million dollars dollars to become a doctor. It takes eight
to twelve years. A lot of people don't want to
do that, but that and manage care organizations. Many doctors,
especially new ones, they're not working for themselves. They're working
for somebody else. And when you're working for somebody else,
(14:35):
they want they have quotas as to how many people
you need to see today. Usually it's about fifteen. You
can't do great medicine see impatients every fifteen minutes, but
that's really where it is, so they pack people in. Now.
There's another caveat to that too. If you don't have
an established doctor, you will not get in to see
a practice. You have to go to urgent care because
they have to see you first. Takes an hour. They
(14:55):
do a physical. So you can't just call up a
doctor and say, hey, doctor Jones, I heard you were
good for my friends, so and so I need to
see you today. Won't happen.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
They have to establish you as a new patient, which
takes them. That's a much longer initial appointment, and they
may not have that for two three months.
Speaker 3 (15:09):
Out exactly if it's a specialist. Especially I had an
issue with the gurology office. I was an established patient.
Oh yeah, well he can't see you have to see
a PA. Well when can you see me? Well maybe
for your next physical?
Speaker 2 (15:23):
Yeah, next year.
Speaker 3 (15:24):
Yes, So you see a physician's assistant or a nurse practitioner.
Not that they're bad. The ones that are older are better.
They've been around, they've experienced. That's just because of experience.
Younger people they have not seen some things, and that's
where that's where you get misdiagnosed.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
This from oh boy, all right, and you address this
issue in chapter two yep, yep, okay, and then communication
issues between doctors and hospitals or maybe doctor to doctor.
This occurs all the time, too often.
Speaker 3 (15:55):
Well, let's explain why everybody. Probably here's the term electronic
medical records systems. The problem is when they were instituted,
that the offices were not given enough money. They said,
fifty thousand dollars is what they got. Five hundred thousands
probably more like it. But the problem is none of
the systems talk to each other unless you're in the
same system. The VA is a great example I wish
(16:16):
everybody would work that way. If you're in the VA system,
anywhere you go, they can find your records. In the
United States, you go to a hospital and you're not
a patient of one of their offshoots, you're blind. They
don't have your records, they don't know what drugs you're on.
You're in there for treatment of something, and if you're
not conscious especially or can't tell them, that's what the
(16:37):
problem is. And then people don't realize either. The main
form of communication between doctors, offices, and hospitals and between
each other are still fax machines.
Speaker 2 (16:46):
See which blows my mind. I think it's a positive
in a huge negative. But you're right, you're right. We
have a lot of silos around here, healthcare silos. In
our neck of the woods, in the Kansas City area,
the two big EMRs would be EPIC and Soner and
you if you were in Soerner now you're in EPIC.
These two systems do not communicate with each other period
(17:08):
And you're right now you're stuck in a silo and
you and you have communication issues big time. So you
addressed that in chapter five and eleven.
Speaker 3 (17:18):
Now let me take that up just one mom, okay, god, sure, okay.
Just so you have two different doctors, you have a
cardiologist and your primary care doctor. You have the same system.
If one of them doesn't put in the new medicine
that you would just started on, chances are that won't happen.
But if they don't, then the other office doesn't know,
so you may have a drug interaction because one doesn't
know what the other one did if it wasn't put
into the computer.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
Yep, yep, absolutely, And I live this with my own grandmother.
This has been quite a long time ago, but she
was on like two over the countermeds. Went to the hospital,
they added a bunch, went to the rehab hospital, they
added a bunch, and by the time she was discharged
after about a month long, you know, a hospitalization between
(17:59):
the two back to her assistant living community, she was
on about a page and a half of medications, over
five thousand dollars a month, and she felt horrible.
Speaker 3 (18:08):
How many duplicate is? Well?
Speaker 2 (18:10):
Good, good question. So I had to call the doctor
and say, look, if it doesn't kill her, take it off,
take it off of her. And he got it down
to about one thousand dollars and I guess what, she
felt much better. She felt much better because she was
just being completely over medicated. And then you mentioned that
health insurance companies fight against your doctor instead of letting
(18:34):
you get the care that you need. And why is that?
Speaker 3 (18:38):
Once again, it's reactive. It's reacted to what's just happened.
Just like your car, you have an accident. Okay, now
you can have this care. Well, if you're not sick already,
many insurances will not let you get certain tests. You say,
I want this or that. Nope, sorry, until you're sick,
we can't justify giving you the test. You know, recently
the Affordable Care Act came up and we just had
(18:59):
a government shutdown supposedly over it. But just think of this.
If it's affordable, it should be able to stand on
its loan. But what is that. It's an insurance plan
you could get yourself, but you can't afford it. Well,
who controls the cost of that insurance plan? The premiums
are set by insurance companies, not the government. Yep, easy enough.
That that's who controls cost. And that's subsidizing something that's
(19:20):
controlled by another entity that is not yours yet. Yeah,
I'm just going to pay somebody to give me what
I should get because they charge me too much. He
subsidize me buying a new car.
Speaker 2 (19:29):
So, so many issues, Jerald, this has been fascinating. The book.
Get the book Surviving the US Healthcare System by Gerald
Lynn and Gerald. Thanks so much for being on today.
I really appreciate it very much. Thank you so much.
Speaker 3 (19:41):
You're welcome.
Speaker 1 (19:44):
You're listening to Senior Care Live on the Senior Care
Broadcasting Network. Have a question, visit seniorcare live dot com.
Stick around. We'll have more with Steve coming up now.
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
The Bobby Bones Show
Listen to 'The Bobby Bones Show' by downloading the daily full replay.