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Docs Resisting ObamaCare

Doctors can pick and choose what medical plans they will accept from a given provider. There is nothing obligating them to accept insurance that they feel is not financially advantageous or is overly burdensome. A given doctor may accept a few Aetna PPOs, but not other Aetna plans. In t his case the doctors will simply be opting not to accept health insurance plans from private insurers that are being sold on the exchanges because they know they will be carrying the rest of the ACA regulations and added expense with them.

In the average doctors office it isn't uncommon to see them hire coders and insurance managers that specialize in various insurance plan billing. A doctor that accepts Medicare is almost required to pay an employee just to navigate Medicare billing.

Accepting an ACA derived plan would likely require they hire yet another person to navigate the this new mess foisted on them by the government.... or simply not hire someone and not accept the insurance.

What extra expense? The patients have insurance. What difference does it make to the doctor whether or not that policy was sold on an exchange?

It's not like they're dealing with a new insurance company with new regulations.
 
Doctors can pick and choose what medical plans they will accept from a given provider. There is nothing obligating them to accept insurance that they feel is not financially advantageous or is overly burdensome. A given doctor may accept a few Aetna PPOs, but not other Aetna plans. In t his case the doctors will simply be opting not to accept health insurance plans from private insurers that are being sold on the exchanges because they know they will be carrying the rest of the ACA regulations and added expense with them.

In the average doctors office it isn't uncommon to see them hire coders and insurance managers that specialize in various insurance plan billing. A doctor that accepts Medicare is almost required to pay an employee just to navigate Medicare billing.

Accepting an ACA derived plan would likely require they hire yet another person to navigate the this new mess foisted on them by the government.... or simply not hire someone and not accept the insurance.

I understand that..I'm curious what hurdles are put in place. I understand there are a lot of added regulations for insurance companies, I understand doctors are a big fan of the 90 day grace period or how high the deductibles are for the plan (poor people with high deductible means higher chance of not getting compensated).

As for the medical billing...the ACA creates baseline plans with baseline things covered. As of now hospitals deal with over a thousand insurers with different plans and different requirements. This idea that there's horrible Medicare billing and easy chessy private billing is just false. Most hospitals may hire a Medicare billing expert...but it's because of the high volume of medicare patients they receive.
 
What extra expense? The patients have insurance. What difference does it make to the doctor whether or not that policy was sold on an exchange?

It's not like they're dealing with a new insurance company with new regulations.

there's no difference, except possibly that some doctors are feeling threatened with the possibility that the ACA may look a little closer at how they are gouging for their services. One instance that comes to mind is resorting to expensive MRI's in the US when a cheap X-ray serves the need just as well. (that's not in all cases of course)

Stopping that abuse, as well as many more would bring the cost of health care in the US down to something a little closer to Canada's where we pay roughly half as much per capita.

But no, the racist teabaggers would want to ignore that wouldn't they!
 
This article is expecting me to believe that doctors are refusing to take patients who have signed up for health insurance from the same companies that were providing it before.

Patient comes in, probably with better insurance than they had before, and doctors don't want them... why? Spite?

Once again, the difference in payout. And you're dreaming with the "probably with better insurance" crack.
 
there's no difference, except possibly that some doctors are feeling threatened with the possibility that the ACA may look a little closer at how they are gouging for their services. One instance that comes to mind is resorting to expensive MRI's in the US when a cheap X-ray serves the need just as well. (that's not in all cases of course)

Stopping that abuse, as well as many more would bring the cost of health care in the US down to something a little closer to Canada's where we pay roughly half as much per capita.

But no, the racist teabaggers would want to ignore that wouldn't they!

There are many reasons an MRI is superior diagnostically speaking to X-Ray.
 
This could end up making medical care for everyone a total nightmare thanks to Obamacare. Think about it... What is going to happen if half the doctors in the US suddenly vanish?




Docs resisting ObamaCare | New York Post

Chilling! Remember when Bush was re-elected and all the democrats moved to Canada, and then when Obama was re-elected all the Republicans also moved to Canada? It's deja vu all over again!
 
Chilling! Remember when Bush was re-elected and all the democrats moved to Canada, and then when Obama was re-elected all the Republicans also moved to Canada? It's deja vu all over again!

I remember the democrats threatening that, but not the republicans.
 
I remember the democrats threatening that, but not the republicans.

Fine, secede and make Texas their own country, whatever.
 
I understand that..I'm curious what hurdles are put in place. I understand there are a lot of added regulations for insurance companies, I understand doctors are a big fan of the 90 day grace period or how high the deductibles are for the plan (poor people with high deductible means higher chance of not getting compensated).

As for the medical billing...the ACA creates baseline plans with baseline things covered. As of now hospitals deal with over a thousand insurers with different plans and different requirements. This idea that there's horrible Medicare billing and easy chessy private billing is just false. Most hospitals may hire a Medicare billing expert...but it's because of the high volume of medicare patients they receive.

No, sorry, you are wrong. Individual doctors have to hire medical coders and billing experts to guide a bill through the tangle of regulations in order to get a bill paid. They will usually carry at least two, and sometimes three people on staff whose whole job is to jump through billing hoops. The third person is usually needed for practices that accept Medicare because that ends up being a full time job. The Other two billing staff become familiar with the ins and out of the major insurance companies like BCBS and Aetna.

They are an essential part of the practice as a doctor simply doesn't have the time to manage such things on their own.

Cash-only practices generally charge much less simply because the patient no longer has to share the burden of paying for the billing staff.
 
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Are they moving out of the United States? Changing careers? There's no danger of that . . . they'll accept Obamacare or starve.

The older ones who have been practicing for many years will simply retire earlier than normal. Other will work for cash or only take Cadillac plans. Some might just up and move to another country. Doctor are wanted everywhere

Ever read "Atlas Shrugged"? This is exactly what the people who made the economy go did...they vanished. All because of an over-bearing government that was up in their business.
 
What extra expense? The patients have insurance. What difference does it make to the doctor whether or not that policy was sold on an exchange?

The insurance on the exchange carries a whole host of max billable regulations that will only pay a doctor a certain rate for a given service without regard to how much it costs the doctor, in the end, to provide that service. Given the added billing personnel costs to support an ACA plan, and low max billable rates it could easily get to the point that a doctor simply can't break even on a given plan. Again, this is why every doctor has a maximum cap on Medicare patients they will see and have their own version of open enrollment for Medicaid patients. They know they will lose money off of these patients, but what they also know is that their losses are deductible. Essentially they take as many Medicare/Medicaid patients as they can and still break even and then close enrollment.

It's not like they're dealing with a new insurance company with new regulations.

Yes they are. As I pointed out, these new plans all have their own billing regulations and caps on fees for service.
 
I personally know two college graduates in the past year who opted not to go to medical school to pursue a career as a doctor specifically because of Obamacare. That's anecdotal, sure, but that's just in little old The Man's world. I'm sure plenty of others know of and have seen the same thing.
 
I personally know two college graduates in the past year who opted not to go to medical school to pursue a career as a doctor specifically because of Obamacare. That's anecdotal, sure, but that's just in little old The Man's world. I'm sure plenty of others know of and have seen the same thing.

I don't buy it. Not that you're lying, but that that was their genuine rationale. Doctors have known for well long enough now that the school debts are exorbitant, the hours and pressure extreme, the litigation a potential danger, and finally of course that dealing with hospitals and insurance companies are a pain in the ass. I sincerely doubt that it was Obamacare that did it in for them. And don't tell me "it was the straw that broke the camel's back."
 
I don't buy it. Not that you're lying, but that that was their genuine rationale. Doctors have known for well long enough now that the school debts are exorbitant, the hours and pressure extreme, the litigation a potential danger, and finally of course that dealing with hospitals and insurance companies are a pain in the ass. I sincerely doubt that it was Obamacare that did it in for them. And don't tell me "it was the straw that broke the camel's back."

I don't know what it was that broke the camel's back, but I do know that both are very intelligent and dead set on becoming doctors before Obamacare. Obamacare is the reason that they gave for deciding not to pursue it, and I'm in no position to argue with their reason. :dunno:
 
LMAO... After hours and hours of searching, you come up with one obscure group that says something crazy... Anything to make Conservatives seem as off the rails as liberals are.

Well, after three seconds of searching, but whatever, you completely missed the point, which is that anybody can make a scare article/post/threat/website/etc. which posits a danger of electing someone or passing a bill. And as history has shown those threats had no grounding. It was hysterical for some Republicans to threaten revolution if Obama was re-elected, hysterical when Democrats said they'd move to Canada, and just as equally hysterical that half of doctors would quit or move if Obamacare is enacted.

It's baloney.
 
I don't know what it was that broke the camel's back, but I do know that both are very intelligent and dead set on becoming doctors before Obamacare. Obamacare is the reason that they gave for deciding not to pursue it, and I'm in no position to argue with their reason. :dunno:

It doesn't pass the smell test with me.
 
Once again, the difference in payout. And you're dreaming with the "probably with better insurance" crack.

Payouts from the same insurance companies have dropped with exchange plans but not other plans?
 
I think they have built 10 new meds schools of late. but yea, the doctors are just quitting...:roll:
It doesn't pass the smell test with me.
 
There are many reasons an MRI is superior diagnostically speaking to X-Ray.

Yes, that's true. But a broken arm only requires an X-ray picture which costs a fraction of what the MRI costs. But the doctor makes more money off the MRI. So why would you say that if you had read my post? Anybody can see that I explained it adequately and didn't suggest that an MRI wasn't superior to an X-ray. I stated clearly that an MRI wasn't necessary in (some cases.)

And again (but not in all cases of course) Did you get it this time?
 
The same will likely be true for these new price fixing plans in the ACA.

ACA doesn't really set prices (which is a flaw in my opinion).

In any case, the health care exchanges are simply the same insurers who insure now. The only difference is that the exchanges create a pool that allow the insurers to spread the risk and hence charge rates that are similar to employer plans.

So it would probably be impossible for a doctor to even tell that the patient is in an exchange as opposed to some other plan, and since the payments would be the same, why would they care.

The OP is arguably the most idiotic article I've seen at DP.
 
The older ones who have been practicing for many years will simply retire earlier than normal. Other will work for cash or only take Cadillac plans. Some might just up and move to another country. Doctor are wanted everywhere

Ever read "Atlas Shrugged"? This is exactly what the people who made the economy go did...they vanished. All because of an over-bearing government that was up in their business.

That's happening now and has been for a decade. It has nothing to do with ACA.

Most insurance companies piggyback on Medicare charges so, except for Cadillac Plans, most doctors don't get paid more whether their patients are Medicare patience or in a typical plan. They complain bitterly about this every time Medicare comes out with a tighter pricing schedule, because the insurance companies follow shortly thereafter and negotiate similar prices.

The medical market of the past 25 years is unsustainable and will be swept away. Indeed, more and more hospitals are forming sister organizations to hire doctors as employees (hospitals are barred from directly hiring doctors), so the number of doctors who will be in private practice is expected to plummet. In the future most doctors will likely be employees, not private practitioners. Indeed, I suspect that this trend is somehow behind the garbled reporting of the OP.
 
This could end up making medical care for everyone a total nightmare thanks to Obamacare. Think about it... What is going to happen if half the doctors in the US suddenly vanish?




Docs resisting ObamaCare | New York Post

If they don't take "ObamaCare" then they are a bunch of morons. All the "ObamaCare" policies are through private insurance companies just like they accept now, and ObamaCare does not dictate in any way the payout structure for these private plans.
 
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