According to a recent study by the University of North Dakota (UND), 56 percent of U.S. pilots said that they had avoided some form of health care for fear of losing their flying privileges. Now, the university and the National Business Aviation Association are asking pilots to participate in a new study designed to assess pilots’ “knowledge of healthcare services and procedures and how that could impact aviation safety.”
The current situation is pilots won’t get medical testing BECAUSE then they will have to report any condition that is found. It’s not about nice words like “culture”; it’s about a system that actually discourages pilots from perusing any medical testing that might find problems.
It shouldn’t take a study to figure that dealing with the FAA’s glacial bureaucracy and trying to get a SI or waiver is an absolute nightmare. N. S. Sherlock! Keep it under wraps unless you want to be waiting on Oklahoma City until the next ice age.
IMHO, it would have been more valuable if, among all the slightly rephrased similar questions, they had simply asked, “Has your FAA medical status affected your health care choices?”
That’s certainly true in my case. My PCP knows this and advises and prescribes accordingly. For my part (now in my 80th decade, 60 years flying) I go to the gym regularly, eat healthily, and have a checkup quarterly to stay on top of anything that might have to be reported on my next FAA medical. It’s cheap insurance against a nasty surprise, no different from doing an owner-assisted annual, a thorough preflight, and flying with a multi-probe engine monitor.
I took the survey. There were zero questions that related to concerns on healthcare as it relates to the FAA and protecting flying privileges. Senseless survey.
True story… a local pilot was prescribed an anti-anxiety medication to deal with a sleep issue after a family member had passed. The pilot did not take the medication, but being an honest sort, reported it on his next 3rd class medical application. It took 6 years and $15,000 of his own money for numerous psychological tests (fortunately, he could afford the psychological testing… ) before he was finally able to get a special issuance. The prescribing physician tried to help as did the AME. Other than the requirements for more psych testing, crickets from Oklahoma. I don’t have his financial means, so my flying would have been done forever.
If I had a legally disqualifying health issue and my own physician(s) aren’t concerned that it will affect my ability to pilot an aircraft: 1) Why should the FAA be concerned, and 2) Other than a small risk of a perjury charge, why should I report it?
Those are rhetorical questions, of course. I’m still young and healthy… but I won’t always be that way.
As a topic for another discussion, all of the hoopla over the supposedly upcoming changes to the LSA rules could be eliminated by extending basic med to ALL individuals… or by completely eliminating the need for a 3rd class medical. Where is the data that indicates SPORT pilots are dying or having incapacitating medical conditions above and beyond the general population while flying? That data doesn’t exist.
It COULD have something to do distrust of the health care industry’s motives. What with the health care industry’s colossal level of denial, blind to its own practice of trying to make people into perpetual patients, which, as a single example, often includes prescribed pharmaceutical products which are designed to be a permanent feature of a patient’s personal health regimen. And then these products could be on the FAA’s list of substances which would disqualify a pilot from flying while taking these products. Or the health care industry could be totally aware of this practice and just wants Those Little People to accept it, because Cash Flow. Just sayin’…
“Other than a small risk of a perjury charge, why should I report it?”
Because it’s not a “small risk of a perjury charge”. Rather, it’s a “non-insignificant risk of losing all flying privileges”, as the FAA has done to some individuals who were caught witholding information on their medical form. Nevermind that it may be something as insignificant as a one-time life event like the local pilot you know.
I’m much less concerned about the health care industry than I am about the FAA applying inconsistent and unknowable requirements for deeming someone with any reportable conditions as medically fit to fly. Quite often, the health care industry thinks the FAA’s test requirements are unnecessary.
“The new study is designed to determine if a lack of information on healthcare practices and the healthcare system had “a meaningful impact” on pilots who chose to withhold information.”
It’s not the healthcare system that’s the problem, it’s the FAA’s medical requirements that are the problem. Sounds like another useless study that’s looking at the wrong question.
The FAA inserts itself into your medical process adding no value. I see my doctor on a regular basis and we converse about my issues. When reported to the FAA, this information is gone over by someone in an office who has never seen me and doesn’t know my general health. How can they be in a better position to determine my suitability to pilot an aircraft?
The FAA has done some things that help, such as the “CACI” conditions an AME can issue, many more have been reserved to OKC, and once in that path, the FAA has stated that their requirements are their requirements, and if people want to fly, they will pay whatever price necessary to get that medical.
Kevin P noted that Regional or OKC will nearly always require extra and sometimes very expensive tests to keep a medical, including in some instances, where what today we would consider benign conditions requiring no treatment, 20-30 years ago we didn’t know and over-treated or we treat differently today. Some of the testing required runs upwards of $5-10k and may be required at every renewal. As a result, some, perhaps many pilots, defer or worse ignore impending problems.
This is a very pertinent study given that modern medical practice will quickly dispense medications that are potentially disqualifying to relieve stress and anxiety. COVID-19 and the national response was a dramatic increase in prescribing and use of anti-anxiety drugs which are an FAA show stopper and will require extensive and expensive testing to get a special issuance. The questionaire is a starting point to get baseline data. Undoubtedly the UND will have follow on surveys that are more directed based on review of the first survey.
Lipstick on a pig cooperation between two entrenched bureaucracies: government and the academic industry. Nothing will come of it. In other news, water is wet.
Why?
Bureaucratic indifference to change. When did you ever hear of any government function (needed or not) getting smaller? Or, unless at the point of legislation (Pilot’s Bill of Rights, Basic Med, etc) NOT dragging their feet until they are being dangled over the edge of a cliff by legal directive? Same with Oak City. WE are not the customers, WE are the product. Oak City’s customers are located within the beltway. WE just get in the way. For once, Congress forced FAA’s hand with Basic Med (and they did NOT like it but had no choice) to our benefit.
We have seen what the collusion between industrialized medicine, pharma, and the government has wrought over the last three years. You think the FAA medical branch is free of being manipulated in the same way?
There’s lies, damn lies, and statistics. I’m thinking they don’t WANT to know the truth; the questions are framed to get the results that they can publish in support of their thesis. The elephant in the room: since the introduction of Basic Med, has the result of medical incapacitation causing incidents increased, decreased, or stayed the same? My own opinion? Basic Med (which I fly under, even as a CFI) has caused me to be MORE engaged with my PCP than before and have discussions with him as to how to best deal with any issues without feeding the pharma hogs rather than seeing a flight surgeon every 2 years for a cursory examination who isn’t involved in my regular care. Who is the better judge of my fitness to fly? It’s basically the same exam. My PCP or a flight physical mill in a spare office at the airport once a month?
Change in LSA rules to encompass up to the 172 class of ride? That would be nice. But, probably not in my lifetime. Look how long it took to accomplish the medical changes. Heck, they were talking about that in the mid 80s when I started flying. We’re talking decades before the feds will do anything (again, unless they’re dangled over a cliff) about that.
My concern is that the FAA will see this “study” from UND as a means to become more restrictive. If they suspect the vast majority of us are withholding medical information, what other ridiculous rules will they come up with to resolve that?
It’s all about CAMI. Don’t let them get involved if at all possible. I had a bypass. No heart attack, just blockage. Vandy reported me healthy as can be following that. Go do any activity you wish. My cardiac doctor said, “you’re healthier than me now”. Foolishly, I wrote CAMI a message saying what I had done and how would I go about getting a SI. They wrote back saying that I couldn’t because of the med I now had to use. They did say they had notified my AME and made a record of my issues. Fortunately, I had not officially been denied a medical because I had not actually asked for one. So I just said screw it and flew light sport for the next 8 years until I finally hung it up. My hanger neighbor, retired FedEx, during that period of time, while having a current class II, fell over dead in his truck while waiting for an oil change.
My family doctor once ask me if I snored. I answered “My wife says I do”. The result was a diagnosis of sleep apnea, and a never-ending journey through a quagmire of FAA regulations and sleep studies. It resulted in the denial of my medical certification, which permanently short-circuited my flying. It turns out that my doctor had recently made a substantial investment in a sleep disorders clinical practice, and I had unwittingly stumbled into his web. I found out later that he did FAA medical exams, so this aspect of my medical history made its way onto my exam questionnaire, and never left. For the record, I have never once fallen asleep in an inappropriate place. If I had it to do over, I would have protected my private medical history MUCH more zealously.
This almost happened to me. I have a sleep disorder and my doctor wanted to prescribe off-label a med commonly used for anxiety. I asked him if it was listed by the FAA as a drug which would disqualify me from flying and he had no knowledge of any such list. On his desktop computer we searched faa dot gov until we found it and he said “Try a good grade of melatonin.”
Why do pilots hide medical data?
The short answer is simply pilots don’t trust the FAA.
The mandate of the FAA is to promote and regulate aviation, with safety being the underlying concern. What could be safer than all planes being on the ground and the only thing being burned were airworthiness certificates.
The larger problem with all of this is the inability to discuss things that are in the realm of possibility without falling into absolutes.
In a culture of judgment the absolutes dominate followed by the dismiss. Once one is judged by the system the game is over. YOU! You have crossed a non repairable, unforgivable line! Dismissed. Berried. Bye, bye.