I may just take my money and go live like a king abroad and practice medicine where it matters - outside of a system regulated by insurance companies and corporations. 

The Good NewsThe good news is we have taken some of our medicine.

Unfortunately, this type of over billing happens in medicine all the time.  

The prominent industries in BHAM include: banking, finance, manufacturing, transportation, distribution and logistics, biotechnology, IT, corporate mine & most importantly UAB school of Medicine was ranked 10th in the Nation for Primary Care.

Yes, the pharmaceutical companies control medicine.

That would be akin to not knowing anything about medicine, going to the doctor and saying 'you need to fix my issue this way by doing x, y and z and give me this xxx medicine'. 

I think the lack of professionalism is due to it being a career with a very low barrier to entry (a few weeks of an online course, versus years of schooling required for other professions such as finance, engineering, and medicine).

What area of medicine are you in?

I am in Medicine, most patient sue us Doctors not for mistakes we make, but lack of transparency/information, it forces us to give information.

Even within med office there is quite a bit of variation, where the retail and med overlap is in the retail medicine, ie pharmacies, urgent cares, remote EDs etc.