nightblade354 wrote:
Though they soon will, patients should not have a legal right to see their medical records. As a doctor, I see two reasons for this. First, giving them access will be time-wasting because it will significantly reduce the amount of time that medical staff can spend on more important duties, by forcing them to retrieve and return files. Second, if my experience is anything to go by, no patients are going to ask for access to their records anyway.
Which one of the following, if true, establishes that the doctor's second reason does not cancel out the first?
(A) The new law will require that doctors, when seeing a patient in their office, must be ready to produce the patient's records immediately, not just ready to retrieve them
(B) The task of retrieving and returning files would fall to the lowest-paid member of a doctor's office staff
(C) Any patients who asked to see their medical records would also insist on having details they did not understand explained to them
(D) The new law does not rule out that doctors may charge patients for extra expenses incurred specifically in order to comply with the new law
(E) Some doctors have all allowing their patients access to their medical records, but those doctors' patients took no advantage of this policy
The doctor gives two reasons why patients should not be allowed to see their records:
1. Retrieving and returning files will waste time.
2. People will anyway not ask to see the records.
Now, the second cancels off the first, right? Well, if people won't ask to see the files, how will it waste time retrieving and returning? So only one of two objections could be valid. If people ask for files, retrieving and returning will waste time. If people don't ask for them anyway, then there will be no retrieval and return.
But how can we say that the second doesn't cancel the first?
(A) The new law will require that doctors, when seeing a patient in their office, must be ready to produce the patient's records immediately, not just ready to retrieve them
The new law will need the doctors to keep patient records ready upon visit. They cannot stand ready for retrieval. They must have already retrieved and kept ready. So retrieval and return will need to be done by law even if the patients don't ask to see it. Hence both issues are valid. Retrieval and return will waste time. But patients will anyway not ask for records. Correct.
(B) The task of retrieving and returning files would fall to the lowest-paid member of a doctor's office staff
Irrelevant
(C) Any patients who asked to see their medical records would also insist on having details they did not understand explained to them
Irrelevant. Not a part of doctor's argument at all.
(D) The new law does not rule out that doctors may charge patients for extra expenses incurred specifically in order to comply with the new law
Extra expenses are irrelevant.
(E) Some doctors have all allowing their patients access to their medical records, but those doctors' patients took no advantage of this policy
This is just a rephrasing of issue 2.
Answer (A)