Pay physicians peanuts, they will stop accepting insurance. Watch what’s happening in California.
Stand up and applaud these physicians who have taken a stand and dropped insurance plans. Doctors are tired of being extorted by third-party payers and won’t take it anymore:
It’s hard to say exactly how many local doctors have stopped accepting insurance because it’s a private business transaction that isn’t tracked by government agencies. About 100 doctors from across the country, including Gersh, will attend a conference this weekend in Virginia on practices that charge their patients directly.Some Orange County specialists dropped the Blue Cross PPO over the summer after cuts were made in payments for surgeries and cancer care. Other doctors have opened concierge practices that allow them to be less dependent on insurance for income because they charge patients an annual retainer.
(via a reader tip)
Related posts:
- Blue Cross targeted its "rat out" letters to capitated doctors
- Plaintiffs are starting to drop their Vioxx lawsuits
- Primary care doctors dropping insurance
- Did Facebook lead to health insurance denial?
- Doctors can’t wait to practice in Texas
- Tufts Medical Center plays the Partners HealthCare card and drops Blue Cross Blue Shield
- Tufts Medical Center versus Blue Cross Blue Shield, who blinked?
KevinMD.com on Facebook
{ 5 comments }
Good old Blue Cross PPO, may they all rot in hell. Their approach to everything is to stall, obfuscate and deny.
This move simply underscores the impractical nature of current insurance contracting. The entire concept of “in network” needs to be eliminated, with standard reimbursement to any physician, who is then free to set his own price. The balance is to be paid by the patient, who could shop for price if that is what is most important to a given individual. HSA-like accounts could be used to pay the difference between insurance allowable benefits and the balance due. It really is that simple.
Sounds like the Simple Care concept is spreading.
See it here: —>
http://www.simplecare.com/
All of the above sounds good if you’ve got big bucks. But what about the average American trying to make ends meet in this cut-throat world.
How’s he/she going to cope with increased health expenses?
Does anyone really care?
The average American would be able to get good medical care for a reasonable fee if the overhead expenses associated with billing insurance were eliminated. If you analyze what it costs in terms of paperwork, employee expenses, office equipment, etc. necessary to comply with the demands of insurance companies, this is easily one-third of total collections.
Comments on this entry are closed.