Posted on 03/22/2013 12:52:54 PM PDT by My Favorite Headache
Deep breath.
I am going to write this in the calmest way possible. I am not here to air out dirty laundry but just like my last post back in Jan about Obamacare and law enforcement officials and doctors...this one leaps another level.
I went to a doctor this morning for a follow up to an appointment I went to at the end of January. During my last appointment other than just getting some prescriptions refilled we went over some MRI results and talked about a different course of action regarding an injury.
This morning I show up for a follow up to see how the new scripts are going and what not...I get to the front desk and the doctor's assistant says to me "You have an outstanding balance of $75.00", I said no that is impossible...I pay everything up front for my appointments. I pay cash up front for any visit.
Then she lays it on me.
"Your doctor went 13 minutes over time last visit and you owe $75.00 for it."
I said like hell I do...I paid for a full visit last time like I do every time and why should I suddenly pay more?
Quote "As of January..and the change to the medical laws and rules and the "Affordable Health Care Act", we have to by law charge after 15 minutes for a separate appointment because the first 15 minutes are considered "Prescription Recheck". If anything goes over the 15 minutes it becomes "Therapeutic Visit". If the doctor does not account for his time with you he will be fined $600.00 and he must account for every single thing that goes on behind that door."
She then puts a 2013 medical code book and shows me that there were hundreds of pages of code they were still learning and that they were told to expect a new bigger book in December.
I was furious at the fact that there was no notice of this anywhere and why in the hell am I just being told this now and not when I left the office the last time?
The assistant said "The notices are on the door over there".......................the door to a closet that nobody reads really because it had about 17 pieces of different things written in various sized print. By law all the office has to do is post it but not tell the patients about it.
They have stopped accepting new patients..FOREVER. They have had to close another office they had 65 miles away because since the Newton shootings...there are landlords that do not want to have anything from neurologists to psychologists to psychiatrists (anything brain related) in their building in case "one of them snaps".
I was told to expect it to become much, much, much worse and that people are just not showing up for appointments any longer.
Not that it matters but this was for a neurologist who sees me for a fall from a 2 story house.
My employer doesn't offer health insurance...they can't afford to. So I am compensated more to make up for what they can as far as me handling my own medical care.
A $75.00 extra fee. If he didn't report it he would be brought up for medical fraud and the $600.00 fine would put him on a probation.
I hate typing about my own personal life like this but you know what...this is the kind of thing that needs to be known. My doctor said his hands are tied. He tries every route he can to avoid billing cash patients more and tries to do a discount but has been warned if he does that then he will be charged with fraud as well. That is why he stopped seeing new patients so he won't be shopped.
He said psychiatrists and psychologists are going through some serious problems right now and they are completely turning all cash only. No insurance at all.
My venting is over.
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I truly sympathize with this poster so please don’t misconstrue this comment as a negative response:
People need to understand that for an office to exist (ObamaCare aside at this point) it needs to charge about $75 every quarter hour, minimum.
If, for example, you have a simple practice with one Doctor. For one year that Doc needs a front desk person to take appointments/&c. and one good nurse to draw blood/&c. You could maybe get away with one person holding both roles, but it would piss a bunch of patients off so you just go with two.
In this scenario this simple practice is now paying about $100,000 in yearly salary, taxes (State and Fed), and benefits for staff. The Doc hasn’t even made a dime yet.
Then there is office rent. Power, water... general office maintenance and expenses that we all have; paper, pens, &c... Mal-Practice insurance, depending on state, can be out of this world.
Seriously, let’s just pop on another yearly $200,000 for all of that. And I’m still low-balling here. Just trying to tie up this post....
Medical supplies and equipment aren’t cheap. Add an easy $25k - $75k (seriously depends on specialty).
(Keep in mind - the Doctor still hasn’t gotten paid yet.)
Now, for an honest-to-God truth: 50% of your cash patients will never pay you. That’s a fact. So, you have to write that off.
Medicare will probably pay about half or 3/4 of your total billing. Insurance agencies... sheesh.... much of the time you loose money on half of the tests you have to run.
All of this expense is pretty much riding on one person who can only see one person at a time and this Doc has to make about $300,000 just to break even.
If this fictional Doc works and sees patients every hour of every weekday for 52 straight weeks and no break he’ll Bill for a maximum of around $650,000 at $75/QtrHr ($300/hr). But only if he maintains a strict quarter hour billing policy and no one traditionally does.
That sounds pretty sweet except that remember he only gets about 3/4 of his billing - at MOST. So, we’re talking maybe $488,000 in receipts for this Robo-Doc machine man who never takes a break.
Basically, this Doc is making about $90,000 - $125,000/yr and won’t really begin making that until he’s almost 30. Long after all of his buddies have bought homes and big TVs and stuff. (I hope he doesn’t have college loans.)
Summary: I’ve lain out some super rough numbers here, but $75 bucks ain’t too bad for a quarter hour with your Doc if you want to keep him off of food stamps.
“If you think health care’s expensive now, wait until you see what it costs when it’s free.”
I receive discounted office visit rates for direct private pay from a large internal medicine practice in Dallas. I’ve been a pt for 9 years and was informed 4 months ago of the new rates. They are implementing this policy for all similar patients as policy. I can find nothing that says those outside the managed care system shall be treated as in the system. And I follow this issue quite a lot. If anybody has an article or can link to a citation of the law saying differently, I’d really like to see it.
There are both boutique and direct payment care models. Mine is the latter. I usually only see Dr every six months, and pay $500.00 total for visit and labs. Top doc at good hospital and sees and chews that fat for an avg of about 30 minutes. Not bad at all. In times when I needed to get in the same day due to illness it’s never been a problem. Why anyone without good coverage would opt for poor access and lousy doctors dictated to by bureaucrats is beyond me.
The Democrats won. Mengelecare is the law of the land.
Thank a Democrat today.
That presumes that enforcement wont catch up to it(e.g. changes to customs procedures). I wouldnt put it past them to try such maneuvers if 0care drives enough people into medical tourism.
That said, one might want to be careful even if medical tourism is an option. A better course of action though would be to get rid of the law causing this situation.
It's because everybody in the media and medical profession tell them that's how it has to be. They're all in the business of making things hurt for the consumer.
I’d tell them to go punt, especially in light of the fact that you were never notified prior to the January appointment, about the new time rules or the possible fees. I believe they have to provide that in writing for it to be legal. And even then, it sounds like bull$hit to me. Next time you see that doctor, take a cooking timer with you. Set it for 15 minutes, and when the bell rings, walk out the door whether he’s done or not...and find yourself another doctor.
Good. And we are both evidently fans of Peter Weiss’ (and Peter Brooks’) best work.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGM5z-ydQsg
Thanks everyone for posting this. I guess everyone on government free are is ok. I hope I get out of the medical field before it implodes completely!
Very difficult to avoid the doctor after 50. Some do for a while, but it catches up. And then there are accidents and incidents (not always your fault). Can even be the result of "physical fitness" training.
Will do no good to "find another doctor", unless its a concierge practice. This applies to all of them and my clinic was starting to talk about it in early December.
I was thinking we need a web-site to catalogue Obamacare’s stories, complaints, actions and results, too. It’s going to cost people more money and take lives, too.
Some of the medical staff is going to take on a terrible attitude towards patients, too. You can’t respect the people who are not “worth” your care. It will be like the teachers’ union perverts dealing with parents and children.
it’s
You pay $75 or the doctor pays $600?
Ask him to make you a gift of the minutes (in the form of $75).
That said, I don’t go to doctors at all, and I could use one or two. I have no medical insurance whatsoever. Last time I went to the ER, I waited over 3 hrs and no doctor ever showed up (though it was daytime on a weekday). They billed me a princely sum which amounted to about 75% of my entire month’s income.
It was for me only a typical experience. They keep you waiting, they don’t fix what’s wrong, and one way or another they make matters worse.
I’d be furious too, if I had your energy, FRiend.
Obama made doctors into slaves!
By the way, I haven’t whittled this down to a tagline yet, but if you don’t want Obamacare, stop paying for Obamacare. Stop working, stop paying taxes, and if enough people do likewise, Obamacare will stop dead in its tracks. Same goes for any other aspect of government — public ed, foreign aid, Homeland Security, energy overregulation, abortion, etc.
Those who fund the government, nourish it, strengthen it, sponsor it — they can stop it. If they won’t, it’s all just hollow words from their lips.
Because, this is government run and operated “socialized” health-care and no American will be allowed to cut the government out of its “dues” by contracting with the government doctor to get better health-care than any other American (now socialist).
There is no secrets, nothing private about this government health-care, and nothing you say or disclose to your doctor will remain private, since all health records are now electronically recorded and will be disclosed to any government lackey who wants to read about you.
Why do you think Obumbum just signed EO for health personnel to ask you every time you go to see the doctor (or in this case a PA, no doctor will be available anymore) “Do you have any firearms in your home?”
No such thing as a “private” doctor, the government has just nationalized America’s health-care, period!
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