So why is Monroe County losing physicians? In September 2005, the Monroe County Medical Society, as part of the Rochester Physician Workforce Task Force, interviewed physicians relocating to other communities. Of the several reasons doctors gave for leaving Rochester, the No. 1 reason was low reimbursement.Little can be done to boost Medicare and Medicaid payments, since those reimbursement rates are set by the federal and state governments, respectively.
Commercial insurers throughout the country, in turn, set payment schedules based on a percentage of Medicare. In Rochester, the average commercial insurers reimburse doctors at about 125 percent of Medicare, and some specialties are even lower.
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{ 3 comments }
“…the doctors don’t generally lease offices…little to lose in the moving…”
Very true. Note that many physicians are choosing employee-type job practices – not opening their own practices and this mobility will increase in the future. It used to be that physicians would never relocate and would stay in an area, even for generations. The latest survey from Merritt Hawkins shows an increased trend in employee physicians.
Do no harm – to the provider’s pocketbook and social status. Existing patients be damned.
To anon 3:35:
What ever made you think you had a right to have a doctor be available to you wherever you chose to live?
“Existing” patients have no such right, not ever, no matter what they contribute to their doctor’s pocketbook. They never did. And what kind of grotesquely self-entitled mindset would imagine it their right to demand a doctor–or anyone else– forfeit the welfare of his family so they could have care on the cheap? You are entitled only to what you fairly pay for, and nothing else.
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