Several readers here suggest refusing to take insurance if physicians are unhappy with reimbursement.
You can see how unrealistic that is, as this OB/GYN learns a difficult lesson when he plays hardball with the insurance companies:
While O’Flynn didn’t work for Premier-owned Miami Valley Hospital, his offices were located there. When Premier couldn’t strike a deal with the insurance company early this year, many of his patients likely assumed their insurance was no good at his office. His patient volume declined 18 percent this year.O’Flynn took home about $24,000 for the first six months of this year and he joked about finding a better job at Trader Joe’s. But he’s decided not to turn to stocking free-range chicken to make rent just yet. In a couple of weeks, he will start a residency at a local hospital, training to become a general practitioner.
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He would have been able to recover from an 18% decline in volume in an otherwise healthy practice. It came on top of dramatically escalating malpractice premiums, and perhaps other business problems which we are not told about.
And what happens if you don’t refuse insurance and continue down the current path?
Which way is more likely to result in a change for the better for all physicians?
No one said doing so would be without pain. But what option do you have?
I think there are other aspects that aren’t being discussed here. Why would he decide to go from OB to FP, when he could just move his practice location. Perhaps the competition was too much. Dropping insurance is a reasonable option if there is no over-saturation in your market. If you are the only game in town, it is much more feasible. A doctor in CA has devised a system of buying hospitals, dropping the insurance, and charging Usual and Customary to the insurance admits/patients. Each of the hospitals are doing quite well as a result. Perhaps we aren’t seeing the whole picture in this guy’s case.
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