#1 Dinosaur: “Right now the idea of a cash only practice — be it fee-for-service or prepaid; so-called retainer medicine — is just beginning to take hold. I think it is a good idea, and I do believe I will move to it sooner or later. I also believe that many other physicians will come to the same conclusion and take the same action. I see the insurance companies’ gradual demise, bleeding from a thousand tiny wounds as each of us divests ourselves of our servitude to them.”
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The insurance companies won’t go away because of generalist physicians abandoning them. If that were the case, they’d simply hire their own PAs or NPs and put us out of business. They’re going to recede due to the reasons described by Dr Rich, they have little more to offer employers or subscribers in future savings, generalist medicine has already been cut to the bone.
We’re preparing for them and Medicare to play less and less of a role in our medical practice’s future.
Medical Insurance is, for me, little more than a protection racket. I can afford to pay reasonable fees for my care, but many providers do not charge reasonable fees to those who aren’t in a plan–so the insurance company gets to be the go-between and take a cut.
If docs and hospitals stopped playing games with the charges, they could cut the insurance companies out of everything but major medical for the middle class.
A lot of what you complain about, you do to yourselves.
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