A response to the GoErie article on how to “prepare” for your rushed doctor’s appointment (click here for the article).

A recent article in GoErie features advice from a UPMC Hamot physician on how patients can get the most out of their office visits. The advice? Bring a list. Don’t overshare. Keep your concerns to a minimum. Be concise. Essentially—squeeze your full humanity into a tight little package that won’t disrupt the 10-minute slot you’ve been given.

Let’s be honest: this is the definition of what’s wrong with Western medicine.

Patients are being told to leave out their personal details. But at Love Health Direct Primary Care, that’s exactly what we want to hear—because your personal life is your health. Your relationships, your stressors, your grief, your joy, your fears—they shape your physiology. They influence your pain, your blood pressure, your sleep, your immune function, your ability to heal. And any medical model that tells you to filter those out is practicing incomplete, mechanical care.

This GoErie article is not just a glimpse into the dysfunction—it’s a warning of what’s being normalized.

Why are patients being coached on how to survive a medical visit? Why are we telling people to script their questions and suppress their concerns so they can “fit” into a system designed to move fast, bill high, and ask questions later?

It’s because the system was never designed with healing in mind.

This is what happens when insurance companies act not as collaborators in care—but as cartels.
And yes, let’s use the word:
Cartel (noun): an association of manufacturers or suppliers with the purpose of maintaining prices at a high level and restricting competition.

That’s what we’re dealing with. Insurance giants and hospital systems who collude to set prices, dictate care, and eliminate any threat to their profit margins. Every year, reimbursements to primary care doctors drop. In response, health systems push doctors to see more patients per day. Enter the AI scribes, the automated templates, the conveyor belt medicine.

But no amount of automation can replace human connection. No volume metric can measure compassion. And no scribe can hold space for your tears, your fears, or your intuition.

Here’s the truth: you don’t need to “prepare” for your visit with us like you’re giving a TED Talk. You don’t need to write a script. You don’t need to trim your truth to fit our schedule. You just need to show up—honestly, fully, as yourself.

Because at Love Health, we don’t see you as a time slot or a billing code. We see you as a sacred being with a body, a mind, and a spirit that deserve to be treated as one. We believe healing happens in the context of relationship. That trust, time, and autonomy aren’t luxuries—they’re the foundation of real healthcare.

There’s a powerful concept rooted in Buddhism and yoga: what you resist, persists. When we fight the system, we often reinforce it. That’s why we don’t fight it—we walk away.
Direct Primary Care doesn’t resist the system.
We replace it.

So no, don’t follow the advice in that article. You’re not a problem to be managed. You’re a human to be understood. And when you’re finally given the space to speak, you’ll say exactly what needs to be said—no checklist required.

In peace & health,
Dana Mincer, DO

For all the latest news, follow us on Facebook or sign up for Glenside Local’s “Daily Buzz” newsletter here.