Physician accuses insurance companies of denying treatments to patients while pushing assisted suicide

A physician from Nevada has accused insurance companies of denying his two patients of life-saving medical treatment coverage while offering to pay for their assisted suicide pills.

In a video released by the Patients Rights Action Fund on Wednesday, Dr. Brian Callister of Reno, Nevada recounted his experience when he requested insurance coverage for his two patients, one from California and the other Oregon.

"The insurance medical directors I spoke with said they would not cover the life-saving procedure we requested. But hey, by the way, have you considered assisted suicide?" he said in the video.

Callister said that his two patients both needed life-saving treatments, but his hospital did not perform the said treatments, so he made several calls to request transfers to hospitals in the patients' home states.

California and Oregon are among the states where assisted suicide is legal, according to The Christian Post.

The physician said that he called the patients' insurance companies, but both have refused to cover their treatments. He noted that neither of the patients were terminally ill, but they could face such a condition without the treatment.

After turning down his request, Callister said that both insurance representatives suggested that the patients consider assisted suicide instead.

"Quite frankly, I was stunned," Callister remarked. "It's a lot cheaper to grab a couple drugs, kill you, than it is to provide you life-sustaining therapy. It's as simple as that," he added.

Patients Rights Action Fund said that a lawyer had advised the group against naming the insurance companies involved due to a federal privacy law called the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)

According to Callister, the attorney said that naming the insurance companies could lead to the identification of the patients because the doctor makes transfer requests infrequently.

"It's a low-enough number that naming the insurance companies would potentially make the individual patients identifiable, and therefore a violation of HIPAA," the physician said, as reported by The Washington Times. "I would love to name the insurance companies, but it is what it is," he added.

Kat West, national director of policy and programs at Compassion & Choices, which advocates for legalizing assisted suicide, has voiced her skepticism about Callister's experiences.

She argued that there was no proof to support the doctor's claims and that he needs to provide evidence to support his allegations.

West contended that her advocacy group wants terminally ill patients to "get the best care possible" and would be "appalled" if there were proof of Callister's claims.