“The best way to get a bad law repealed is to
enforce it strictly.” ~ Abraham Lincoln
Posted on 08/05/2014 10:55:57 AM PDT by Red Badger
Obamacare plans have shrunk payments to physicians so much that some doctors say they won’t be able to afford to accept Obamacare coverage, NPR reports.
Many of the eight million sign-ups in Obamacare exchanges nationwide already face more limited choices for physicians and hospitals than those in the private insurance market. But with low physician reimbursement rates, the problem could get even worse.
For a typical quick patient visit, Dr. Doug Gerard, a Connecticut internist, told NPR a private insurer would pay $100 while Medicare would pay around $80. But Obamacare plans are more likely to pay closer to $80, which Gerard says is unsustainable for his practice.
“I cannot accept a plan [in which] potentially commercial-type reimbursement rates were now going to be reimbursed at Medicare rates,” Dr. Gerard told NPR. ”You have to maintain a certain mix in private practice between the low reimbursers and the high reimbursers to be able to keep the lights on.”
Narrow networks have become a hallmark of many Obamacare exchange plans, as one of few options left to insurance companies that allows them to save money by lowering reimbursement rates and covering fewer providers. In the health-care law’s first year, 70 percent of all Obamacare plan networks were either narrow or ultra-narrow, according to an analysis from consulting firm McKinsey.
But doctors are feeling even more financial pressure due to the changes and many believe there’s a risk that Obamacare insurance will go the way of Medicaid, where patients still struggle to find a doctor after low reimbursement rates led many physicians to stop accepting it.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailycaller.com ...
It would be great of physicians revolted, and wanted gold or silver and payment at time of treatment. Getting the paper work out of services physicians provide for fees and charges is paramount.
The elephant in the closet is that Medicare was not paying its own way. It had shifted costs of Medicare recipients onto the general populace. Thus, our insurance rates had been rising to make up for Medicare payment shortfalls.
Paperwork (electronic) has become an intolerable burden for physicians on the Obamacare system. They no longer are allowed to direct their nurse or staff to send orders, scrip, etc. They must do it themselves. A 15 minute appointment now becomes nearly an hour for the physician as he must personally complete all paperwork on his designated laptop.
I wrote a letter to the editor a couple of years ago saying that this would happen. Why should a doctor stay in business if they loose money on every patient? The next move from the government is to force them to accept obamacare patients and the response is going to be a further loss of doctors. Eventually they’ll revert back to supply and demand pricing. With fewer doctors and more patients the cost of medical care will be much higher than it was before the “solution” was implemented.
.... and then there’s THIS coming down the pike (pay more get less & maybe a bill from the IRS!):
If You Like Your Obamacare Plan, It’ll Cost You
http://www.nationaljournal.com/health-care/if-you-like-your-obamacare-plan-it-ll-cost-you-20140805
Consumers who auto-renew their policies will get the same dollar value of subsidies they got last year—even though changes in the marketplace all but guarantee that will no longer be the right subsidy amount for millions of people.
“That’s the totally crazy part,” Pearson said. “They’re basically going to send them what they know to be the wrong subsidy.”
The IRS will eventually figure out how much financial assistance you should have received, and will reconcile the difference on your taxes. If you should have gotten a bigger subsidy, the government will issue you a tax credit. If your subsidy was too big, which would be the case if you keep your plan and lower-cost options come to the market, you’ll owe the IRS money.
Milliman has this example: Your plan doesn’t change its premiums at all, and your income isn’t changing. You auto-renew and keep receiving the same subsidy. But because of changes in the benchmark plan, you shouldn’t actually be receiving the same subsidy. Although it seems to you like nothing changed—not your premium, not your income—you’ll owe the IRS between $300 and $2,500 when you pay your taxes, because your subsidy should have been smaller. Unless and until HealthCare.gov is able to do this math automatically, it’s up to you to figure that out.
On the other side of the coin, United Healthcare offers Medicaid coverage for mental health benefits through United Behavioral Health. Providers are paid about 20% more when they see Medicaid covered patients than they receive when seeing patients who are covered under group insurance plans.
Medicaid beneficiaries pay ZERO for their coverage including no co-pays or deductibles. Patients who have group insurance plans pay a substantial premium, large deductible and co-pays.
Gunpoint. Make doctors see patients under pain of arrest or worse. Prevent doctors from retiring. Prevent doctors from leaving the country.
I wish I could put up the </sarc> tag, but I see this in our future...
Begin?
Many never did.
I bring up that scene in Dr Zhivago
to my libinlaw that lives alone in a huge house
as an example of what she’s supporting,
and she completely denies that that’s what the left is about.
“A 15 minute appointment now becomes nearly an hour for the physician as he must personally complete all paperwork on his designated laptop.”
UNBELIEVABLE!
I have a family member who is on this and has a doctor fighting tooth and nail full time to get the Obamacare insurer to pay for a prescription that could end up costing hundreds of dollars now.
Sorry I work with a lot of doctors/hospitals. If they have a well built EHR its much less time intensive then writing everything out. Also, nurses or staff have never been able to legally transmit an order or script without an order from the doctor. Thats the same way it works now, just done through a computer.
Many doctors do have a severe lack of computer skills which hampers their ability but they can learn.
I wonder how long it will be until Obama writes an executive order outlawing cash only medical services, or private “health” clubs.
Or going overseas for health care. I see a future with a lot of doctors in the Bahamas, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Mexico, etc.
“””A 15 minute appointment now becomes nearly an hour for the physician as he must personally complete all paperwork on his designated laptop.”
UNBELIEVABLE!
“”””
So unbelievable that I don’t believe it.
We need to implement Directive 10-289
In the name of the general welfare, to protect the people’s security, to achieve full equality and total stability, it is decreed for the duration of the national emergency that:
Point One. All workers, wage earners and employees of any kind whatsoever shall henceforth be attached to their jobs and shall not leave nor be dismissed nor change employment, under penalty of a term in jail. The penalty shall be determined by the Unification Board, such Board to be appointed by the Bureau of Economic Planning and National Resources. All persons reaching the age of twenty-one shall report to the Unification Board, which shall assign them to where, in its opinion, their services will best serve the interests of the nation.
Point Two. All industrial, commercial, manufacturing and business establishments of any nature whatsoever shall henceforth remain in operation, and the owners of such establishments shall not quit nor leave nor retire, nor close, sell or transfer their business, under penalty of the nationalization of their establishment and of any and all of their property.
Point Three. All patents and copyrights, pertaining to any devices, inventions, formulas, processes and works of any nature whatsoever, shall be turned over to the nation as a patriotic emergency gift by means of Gift Certificates to be signed voluntarily by the owners of all such patents and copyrights. The Unification Board shall then license the use of such patents and copyrights to all applicants, equally and without discrimination, for the purpose of eliminating monopolistic practices, discarding obsolete products and making the best available to the whole nation. No trademarks, brand names or copyrighted titles shall be used. Every formerly patented product shall be known by a new name and sold by all manufacturers under the same name, such name to be selected by the Unification Board. All private trademarks and brand names are hereby abolished.
Point Four. No new devices, inventions, products, or goods of any nature whatsoever, not now on the market, shall be produced, invented, manufactured or sold after the date of this directive. The Office of Patents and Copyrights is hereby suspended.
Point Five. Every establishment, concern, corporation or person engaged in production of any nature whatsoever shall henceforth produce the same amount of goods per year as it, they or he produced during the Basic Year, no more and no less. The year to be known as the Basic or Yardstick Year is to be the year ending on the date of this directive. Over or under production shall be fined, such fines to be determined by the Unification Board.
Point Six. Every person of any age, sex, class or income, shall henceforth spend the same amount of money on the purchase of goods per year as he or she spent during the Basic Year, no more and no less. Over or under purchasing shall be fined, such fines to be determined by the Unification Board.
Point Seven. All wages, prices, salaries, dividends, profits, interest rates and forms of income of any nature whatsoever, shall be frozen at their present figures, as of the date of this directive.
Point Eight. All cases arising from and rules not specifically provided for in this directive, shall be settled and determined by the Unification Board, whose decisions will be final.[1]
bmp
It is astounding that doctors now cannot afford to accept a patient for an office visit for an $80. fee. I could walk into a doctor’s office fifty years ago unannounced and see the doctor within an hour and pay him with a single $5. bill. A hundred years ago $80. for a week would have made most doctors very happy.
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