Doctor tells Obama supporters: Go elsewhere for health care

[uscitizen]

A Dr in private practice is required to accept medicare/medicaid patients?

 

[saveliberty]

This is where the talking points collide. There can't be both a shortage of doctors and financial harm to a practicing doctor.

Well that is the beauty of government involvement Ravi. Government can use a reimbursement reduction to both cause reduced income for doctors and drive them away from the profession at the same time. Ravi, I know your smarter than that. Tired? Busy?

Nope, just not paranoid. Sorry you are.

So you don't see this as a possible outcome? Pretty basic economic principle involved.

 

[uscitizen]

This is where the talking points collide. There can't be both a shortage of doctors and financial harm to a practicing doctor.

Well that is the beauty of government involvement Ravi. Government can use a reimbursement reduction to both cause reduced income for doctors and drive them away from the profession at the same time. Ravi, I know your smarter than that. Tired? Busy?

so Dr's in private practice are required to accept medicare/medicaid patients?

 

[uscitizen]

Well Saveliberty, what about it? Are Dr's required to accept Medicare/Medicaid patients?
Or do they choose to and thereby live with the consequenses of their decision?

Do you think private insurance pays Doctors full fees ?
Are doctors required to accept private insurance?

 

[WillowTree]

A Dr in private practice is required to accept medicare/medicaid patients?

no

 

[WillowTree]

Well Saveliberty, what about it? Are Dr's required to accept Medicare/Medicaid patients?
Or do they choose to and thereby live with the consequenses of their decision?

Do you think private insurance pays Doctors full fees ?
Are doctors required to accept private insurance?

no

 

[saveliberty]

Well Saveliberty, what about it? Are Dr's required to accept Medicare/Medicaid patients?
Or do they choose to and thereby live with the consequenses of their decision?

Do you think private insurance pays Doctors full fees ?
Are doctors required to accept private insurance?

It is a complicated question. Doctors frequently work in groups, sometimes the hospital or group may require the doctor to accept these patients. I think you inadvertly are pointing to the crisis at hand. Doctors are going to look at their new reinbursement rates and rules, then conclude they are going to reitire in large enough numbers to create a real rationing situation.

 

[Defiant1]

Well Saveliberty, what about it? Are Dr's required to accept Medicare/Medicaid patients?
Or do they choose to and thereby live with the consequenses of their decision?

Do you think private insurance pays Doctors full fees ?
Are doctors required to accept private insurance?

It is a complicated question. Doctors frequently work in groups, sometimes the hospital or group may require the doctor to accept these patients. I think you inadvertly are pointing to the crisis at hand. Doctors are going to look at their new reinbursement rates and rules, then conclude they are going to reitire in large enough numbers to create a real rationing situation.

I don't think Care4All and her posse will allow that to happen. They put shock collars on doctors and chain them in their offices if needed.

I don't know if you knew this or not but those doctors took an oath.

 

[SFC Ollie]

A Dr in private practice is required to accept medicare/medicaid patients?

Our Family Doctor says he will not accept any additional Medicare/Medicaid patients. Not sure if they have to accept any at all.

I know we found several that would not accept Tricare.

 

[boedicca]

Mayo Clinic in Arizona has already announced it will not accept new Medicare patients as well.

It's likely that the price controls mandated by ObamaCare will be at Medicare levels - what happens when doctors refuse to see ObamaCare patients?

 

[SFC Ollie]

Mayo Clinic in Arizona has already announced it will not accept new Medicare patients as well.

It's likely that the price controls mandated by ObamaCare will be at Medicare levels - what happens when doctors refuse to see ObamaCare patients?

Maybe we all should brush up on our Herbal Lore?

 

[jillian]

Mayo Clinic in Arizona has already announced it will not accept new Medicare patients as well.

It's likely that the price controls mandated by ObamaCare will be at Medicare levels - what happens when doctors refuse to see ObamaCare patients?

you might want to do a little fact-checking on that one.

from the mayo clinic:

Some recent media reports have inaccurately stated that Mayo Clinic in Arizona is no longer seeing any Medicare patients. This is not true.

Rather, a five-physician Mayo Clinic Arizona family practice clinic in Glendale, Ariz., has opted out of Medicare as part of a Mayo Clinic time-limited trial that will be reviewed at its conclusion. This means that Medicare will no longer reimburse Mayo Clinic for primary care services at this specific primary care facility, not at Mayo Clinic in Arizona overall. This affects only primary care office visits for the five Mayo family practice physicians at this site. Specialty care, laboratory services, imaging studies and ancillary services at Mayo Clinic are still covered by Medicare. Current Medicare patients may continue receiving primary care at the Glendale clinic but will be required to pay out-of-pocket for office visits.

Medicare and Mayo Clinic in Arizona Health Policy Blog

If you read the link, the clinic also talks about the medicare schedule. That schedule as referred to in the website, has nothing to do with this bill or with President Obama.

 

[jillian]

Mayo Clinic in Arizona has already announced it will not accept new Medicare patients as well.

It's likely that the price controls mandated by ObamaCare will be at Medicare levels - what happens when doctors refuse to see ObamaCare patients?

Maybe we all should brush up on our Herbal Lore?

would be more helpful if people brushed up on facts, I think. (see my post above).

 

[Ravi]

Mayo Clinic in Arizona has already announced it will not accept new Medicare patients as well.

It's likely that the price controls mandated by ObamaCare will be at Medicare levels - what happens when doctors refuse to see ObamaCare patients?

Things aren't always as portrayed by wingnut websites.

Mayo’s Medicare losses in Arizona may be worse than typical for doctors across the U.S., Heim said. Physician costs vary depending on business expenses such as office rent and payroll. “It is very common that we hear that Medicare is below costs or barely covering costs,” Heim said.
Mayo will continue to accept Medicare as payment for laboratory services and specialist care such as cardiology and neurology, Yardley said.
Robert Berenson, a fellow at the Urban Institute’s Health Policy Center in Washington, D.C., said physicians’ claims of inadequate reimbursement are overstated. Rather, the program faces a lack of medical providers because not enough new doctors are becoming family doctors, internists and pediatricians who oversee patients’ primary care.
“Some primary care doctors don’t have to see Medicare patients because there is an unlimited demand for their services,” Berenson said. When patients with private insurance can be treated at 50 percent to 100 percent higher fees, “then Medicare does indeed look like a poor payer,” he said.
Annual Costs
A Medicare patient who chooses to stay at Mayo’s Glendale clinic will pay about $1,500 a year for an annual physical and three other doctor visits, according to an October letter from the facility. Each patient also will be assessed a $250 annual administrative fee, according to the letter. Medicare patients at the Glendale clinic won’t be allowed to switch to a primary care doctor at another Mayo facility.
A few hundred of the clinic’s Medicare patients have decided to pay cash to continue seeing their primary care doctors, Yardley said. Mayo is helping other patients find new physicians who will accept Medicare.

Mayo Clinic in Arizona to Stop Treating Some Medicare Patients - Bloomberg.com

 

[saveliberty]

The move is NOT an endorsement of 0bamacare. It is a measured step away from it. If Jillian's statement is correct with regard to this not being related to the new rules, it will just gain more momentum.

 

[saveliberty]

With Rate Cut Looming, Doctors Threaten To Stop Accepting Medicare Patients - Kaiser Health News

With Rate Cut Looming, Doctors Threaten To Stop Accepting Medicare Patients
PrintShareEmailTopics: Medicare, Delivery of Care, Health Costs, Politics, States

Feb 26, 2010

With a 21 percent Medicare reimbursement rate cut set for Monday, unless Congress acts to block it, some doctors are threatening to refuse new Medicare patients in their practices.

"'To our physicians, we are providing information on their Medicare participation options, including how to remove themselves from the Medicare program,' said James Rohack, president of the American Medical Association, whose more than 250,000 members include doctors, medical students and faculty members," CNN reports. Rohack says temporary delays of the yearly scheduled rate cut should be eliminated. "He said the AMA wants the current law to be repealed and a new formula used 'that more accurately reflects the cost of providing care' in determining Medicare reimbursement rates. … In the meantime, physicians are asking the AMA to prepare handouts they can give patients to prepare them for the worst-case scenario: getting dropped completely. And a new report on the AMA's Web site tells doctors how they can help their patients find other doctors if they decide to no longer accept Medicare."

A survey by the American Association of Neurological Surgeons "found that 65% of its 3,400 members said they are referring their Medicare patients to other doctors. About 60% said they were reducing the number of Medicare patients in their practice" (Kavilanz, 2/25).

 

[Immanuel]

Well Saveliberty, what about it? Are Dr's required to accept Medicare/Medicaid patients?
Or do they choose to and thereby live with the consequenses of their decision?

Do you think private insurance pays Doctors full fees ?
Are doctors required to accept private insurance?

A Dr in private practice is required to accept medicare/medicaid patients?

no

If it is true that doctors are not required to take on all patients for instance Medicare/Medicaid patients, then Care's claim that this doctor is unethical for choosing not to take on patients falls apart.

If a doctor is not required to take any patient that comes to his door then her argument falls apart.

How can a doctor fulfill that oath if he does not take on every person that walks through his door even those who tell him they won't be paying the bill?

Immie

 

[Ravi]

Well Saveliberty, what about it? Are Dr's required to accept Medicare/Medicaid patients?
Or do they choose to and thereby live with the consequenses of their decision?

Do you think private insurance pays Doctors full fees ?
Are doctors required to accept private insurance?

A Dr in private practice is required to accept medicare/medicaid patients?

no

If it is true that doctors are not required to take on all patients for instance Medicare/Medicaid patients, then Care's claim that this doctor is unethical for choosing not to take on patients falls apart.

If a doctor is not required to take any patient that comes to his door then her argument falls apart.

How can a doctor fulfill that oath if he does not take on every person that walks through his door even those who tell him they won't be paying the bill?

Immie

No. Refusing certain insurances isn't the same thing as refusing certain people. Not to mention that just because a doctor doesn't accept your insurance doesn't mean he or she won't treat you.

 

[toomuchtime_]

Well Saveliberty, what about it? Are Dr's required to accept Medicare/Medicaid patients?
Or do they choose to and thereby live with the consequenses of their decision?

Do you think private insurance pays Doctors full fees ?
Are doctors required to accept private insurance?

A Dr in private practice is required to accept medicare/medicaid patients?

no

If it is true that doctors are not required to take on all patients for instance Medicare/Medicaid patients, then Care's claim that this doctor is unethical for choosing not to take on patients falls apart.

If a doctor is not required to take any patient that comes to his door then her argument falls apart.

How can a doctor fulfill that oath if he does not take on every person that walks through his door even those who tell him they won't be paying the bill?

Immie

He/she can direct the person to a federally funded clinic, available everywhere in the US, or another free clinic or an ER, depending on the circumstances.

HRSA - Find a Health Center - Search Page

However, since this information is readily available to everyone, it is not clear he/she is obligated to do even this.

 

[boedicca]

If you read the link, the clinic also talks about the medicare schedule. That schedule as referred to in the website, has nothing to do with this bill or with President Obama.

What do you think the purpose of a trial to test opting out of Medicare Reimbursement is meant to accomplish?