Text 3454, 92 rader
Skriven 2006-07-07 13:28:00 av Robert E Starr JR (3927.babylon5)
Ärende: Re: Atheists: America's m
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* * * This message was from Josh Hill to rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.m * * *
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On Wed, 05 Jul 2006 13:13:58 GMT, Kurt Ullman <kurtullman@yahoo.com>
wrote:

>In article <ejula2lsd0ctvfgbigodt6e33eljaan7mg@4ax.com>,
> Josh Hill <usereplyto@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>>
>> Medicaid is a lousy program -- third-rate care at rates decent doctors
>> frequently can't accept and local costs that overly burden cities and
>> states with more poor people. Medicare is much more reasonable.
>  Can't be it is a government program.   Did I mention that there are 
>many areas where MCare is also having problems getting docs to take 
>patients. The MCare rates are consistently below what providers get from 
>the Evil insurance companies. But they are higher than MCaids.

Not necessarily. I had read that private insurance companies were
pegging their rates to Medicare's, and while I wasn't able to find a
good discussion of the issue, I came across these posts:

Medicare cuts to physician fees are just the tip of the iceberg. I was
stunned 2 years ago to find out that my high-priced private insurance
bases their reimbursement fees on the Medicare rate. They paid my
surgeon less than Medicare paid for the same surgery 10 years ago.
When I questioned my surgeon about it, she said that mine was actually
one of the better payors. Some private insurance pays less than the
current Medicare rate. Yet even before I ever used my insurance, my
rates typically go up 30% or so per year. Either way -- as Medicare
rates go, so goes payment by private insurance. The impact on
physicians, and ultimately patients, is staggering. . . .

and

Finally,
Someone above chimes in with the ACROSS THE BOARD ISSUE. This is not
just a MEDICARE issue. For the last 10 years or more private insurers
(commercial) have based their reimbursements on the MEDICARE standard.
There is virtually NO insurance payer that pays "reasonable and
customary" charges anymore. When Medicare drops, ALL INSURANCE
REIMBURSEMENT DROPS, NOT JUST MEDICARE! So even if you don't accept
Medicare, what Medicare does affects you and it is across all
specialties even those who usually see and treat younger individuals.
This is an issue that dropping out won't solve, so if you can't
practice on an "all cash basis" then you need to "make a big fuss"
with your representatives, societies AND patients.

R. Woody MD

Note also this interesting remark:

My practice is simple: I don't take insurance and don't participate in
Medicare. I've never turned a patient away, however. I can simply
charge less since I don't have to maintain the office staff and
paperwork necessary otherwise. My charge for a brief medication check
is often identical to what the patient's copay would have been
otherwise. (I'm more rigid with patients who smoke - if they can
afford $150/month for cigarettes, they can afford reasonable
consultation fees). 


I believe, BTW, that the reimbursement of physicians has steadily
increased, and that almost 97% of doctors continue to participate in
Medicare (which may compare favorably with those who participate in
HMO's -- I don't have the figures but I know more than a few who
won't). When we talk about rates, it has to be in the context that, as
I think we both agree, medicine hasn't been part of the market economy
for many years. If it were, we wouldn't have the snouts in the trough
problem that we have now -- drug companies, insurance companies,
doctors, patients, and insofar as it joins in forcing the uninsured to
pay higher rates by keeping Medicare and Medicaid payments low,
government as well.

-- 
Josh

"I love it when I'm around the country club, and I hear people talking about
the debilitating
effects of a welfare society. At the same time, they leave their kids a
lifetime and beyond
of food stamps. Instead of having a welfare officer, they have a trust officer.
And instead
of food stamps, they have stocks and bonds."

- Warren Buffett
    
--- SBBSecho 2.11-Win32
 * Origin: Time Warp of the Future BBS - Home of League 10 (1:14/400)