A truly short-sighted move which creates more pressure on physician reimbursement. Long-term, patients will lose as physicians cut back services:
Health plans and medical groups endorsed the plan, accusing emergency room doctors of using consumers as pawns in a high-stakes campaign to boost reimbursement fees.Doctors contend HMOs are trying to put a financial squeeze on their practices and pay the lowest rates possible to raise profits. They also say a crackdown could make it tougher for hospitals to find specialists willing to perform emergency care.
Related posts:
- Unable to provide proper patient care, emergency doctors are suing the state of California
- The sad state of pediatrics in California
- Billing
- Emergency room specialist call
- California’s balance billing ban, are hospitals about to give patients refunds?
- California is cutting Medicaid payments
- This is your reward for continuing to take Medicaid patients
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{ 4 comments }
I’m convinced California has lost his mind and all sense of what made America Great. Poor Adam Smith would be rolling in his grave if he heard about gov’t controlled HC and making it ILLEGAL to bill pts.
I give it about 5 yrs before theres a mass exodus of people/businesses out of Cali.
You do realize that even when it comes to the sheeple that they can be pushed too far. All it would take is one firebrand politico in power to take a Reagan like approach (in terms of how he dealt with the air traffic controllers). Allopathic providers have used the power of legislative feat to control the healthcare market and then instead of providing services they have used their power in an attempt to wrangle concencessions governing just about everything from compensation to special legal status. At some point in time the populace will have had enough with the behavior of the current crop of physicians and once they realize that the medical training and domestic physician production system is not cast in stone, will move to revamp the system. Given the mindset of some of the far left politicians such as “One bill” Gil Cedilo (driver licences for illegals), Sheila Kuehl (healthcare for all) and Cruz BustaMECHa… it would only take the slightest of provocation to have them come down hard on the medical community.
now it’s time for lawersux to leave a derogatory comment about “sodomites” and complain about his own troubles.
and then it will be time for CJD to retort with something witty about physicians creating problems and not understanding the legal system.
and amidst all the finger pointing, mind-blowing, rhetorical hooplah.
nothing changes.
this blog and especially the comments have become so predictable it’s not worth looking at anymore.
“…man received a bill from the emergency room doctor seeking the $425 his health maintenance organization didn’t pay.”
“I had full coverage. I don’t think it was right … for them to bill me,” González told state officials during a public hearing in Sacramento on Wednesday.
I’m guessing this guy isn’t really listening to himself speak. If he really had full coverage then there would be no bill for ER services. This is not a problem for the physicians or the ER, it is that this guy does not understand the nature of the contract he has with his insurer. If he has negotiated poorly with his insurer then that is no fault of the ER.
Emergency rooms already loose money as a department. They are a necessity supported by the hospital to funnel in what paying patients they can so that the ER budget can be supported by shifting funds from other areas of the hospital. If ERs become too much a drain on a hospital’s budget beyond what they can contribute through admissions then they will have to close. There are hospitals in my town for which the only portal of entry is direct admit by a private doc. Signs out front state that no emergency services are available. The hospital does not accept any walk-in patients, only those transferred from the private doc’s care.
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