Green Energy
Daily Caller:
Doctors Begin To Refuse Obamacare Patients
Obamacare plans have shrunk payments
to physicians so much that some doctors say they won’t be able to afford to accept Obamacare coverage, NPR reports.
Many of the eight million sign-ups in Obamacare exchanges nationwide already face more limited choices for physicians and hospitals than those in the private insurance market. But with low physician reimbursement rates, the problem could get even worse.
For a typical quick patient visit, Dr. Doug Gerard, a Connecticut internist, told NPR a private insurer would pay $100 while Medicare would pay around $80. But Obamacare plans are more likely to pay closer to $80, which Gerard says is unsustainable for his practice.
“I cannot accept a plan [in which] potentially commercial-type reimbursement rates were now going to be reimbursed at Medicare rates,” Dr. Gerard told NPR. ”You have to maintain a certain mix in private practice between the low reimbursers and the high reimbursers to be able to keep the lights on.”
Narrow networks have become a hallmark of many Obamacare exchange plans, as one of few options left to insurance companies that allows them to save money by lowering reimbursement rates and covering fewer providers. In the health-care law’s first year, 70 percent of all Obamacare plan networks were either narrow or ultra-narrow, according to an analysis from consulting firm McKinsey.
But doctors are feeling even more financial pressure due to the changes and many believe there’s a risk that Obamacare insurance will go the way of Medicaid, where patients still struggle to find a doctor after low reimbursement rates led many physicians to stop accepting it.
“I don’t think most physicians know what they’re being reimbursed,” Gerard said. “Only when they start seeing some of those rates come through will they realize how low the rates are they agreed to.”
If Obamacare coverage continues on its current track, exchange customers could face a lower level of care than those who buy coverage in the private market.
“I think it could lead potentially to this kind of distinction that there are these different tiers of quality of care,” Connecticut Obamacare chief Kevin Counihan told NPR. ”That’s been something, at least in our state, that we’re trying to work against. And the carriers are, as well.”
The problem is especially bad for private practices like Gerard’s, where physicians’ income is directly tied to reimbursements. But hospitals — especially top-tier ones that treat the most difficult diseases — are also increasingly rejecting the low reimbursement rates. The nation’s best cancer treatment centers are often covered by very few exchange plans in their states; if Obamacare customers end up with a difficult-to-treat cancer, they’re likely to face a lower quality of care right off the bat.
- Obamacare's Troubles Are Only Beginning
I Am The Emperor Honey Boo Boo! From the Wall Street Journal: The White House is claiming that the Healthcare.gov website is mostly fixed, that the millions of Americans whose health plans were canceled thanks to government rules may be able to keep them...
- Another Obamacare Lie: Protecting Those With Pre-existing Conditions
We Get the Government We Deserve From IBD: The Affordable Care Act gets curioser and curioser. President Obama promised to protect people with pre-existing conditions and help the uninsured. Yet these vulnerable groups are getting clobbered. Congress...
- New York Doctors Sick Over Obamacare: “it’s Basically Going To Be A Race To The Bottom”
From the New York Post: New York doctors are feeling queasy about ObamaCare — and many won’t participate in the new national insurance program because they fear they’ll go broke, The Post has learned. “ObamaCare is going to send me more...
- Hospitals Cutting Thousands Of Jobs
From the USA Today: Hospitals, a reliable source of employment growth in the recession and its aftermath, are starting to cut thousands of jobs amid falling insurance payments and in-patient visits. The payroll cuts are surprising because...
- Every Time You Hear Someone Claim Ryan’s Plan Will ‘gut’ Or ‘destroy’ Medicare ‘as We Know It’ Remember, You Are Looking At A Blatant, Unabashed Liar
First, Ryan introduced SEVERAL different bills, one of which was cosponsored by dem Cong. Whyte. That is the latest bill.Why are their several bills? Because Mr Ryan and Mr Whyte reached across the aisle to each other to COMMIT AN ACT WHICH WILL DO SOMETHING.What...
Green Energy
Daily Caller:
Doctors Begin To Refuse Obamacare Patients
Obamacare plans have shrunk payments
to physicians so much that some doctors say they won’t be able to afford to accept Obamacare coverage, NPR reports.Many of the eight million sign-ups in Obamacare exchanges nationwide already face more limited choices for physicians and hospitals than those in the private insurance market. But with low physician reimbursement rates
, the problem could get even worse.For a typical quick patient visit, Dr. Doug Gerard, a Connecticut internist, told NPR a private insurer would pay $100 while Medicare would pay around $80. But Obamacare plans are more likely to pay closer to $80, which Gerard says is unsustainable for his practice.
“I cannot accept a plan [in which] potentially commercial-type reimbursement rates were now going to be reimbursed at Medicare rates,” Dr. Gerard told NPR. ”You have to maintain a certain mix in private practice between the low reimbursers and the high reimbursers to be able to keep the lights on.”
Narrow networks have become a hallmark of many Obamacare exchange plans, as one of few options left to insurance companies that allows them to save money
by lowering reimbursement rates and covering fewer providers. In the health-care law’s first year, 70 percent of all Obamacare plan networks were either narrow or ultra-narrow, according to an analysis from consulting firm McKinsey.But doctors are feeling even more financial pressure due to the changes and many believe there’s a risk that Obamacare insurance will go the way of Medicaid, where patients still struggle to find a doctor after low reimbursement rates led many physicians to stop accepting it.
“I don’t think most physicians know what they’re being reimbursed,” Gerard said. “Only when they start seeing some of those rates come through will they realize how low the rates are they agreed to.”
If Obamacare coverage continues on its current track, exchange customers could face a lower level of care than those who buy coverage in the private market.
“I think it could lead potentially to this kind of distinction that there are these different tiers of quality of care,” Connecticut Obamacare chief Kevin Counihan told NPR. ”That’s been something, at least in our state, that we’re trying to work against. And the carriers are, as well.”
The problem is especially bad for private practices like Gerard’s, where physicians’ income is directly tied to reimbursements. But hospitals — especially top-tier ones that treat the most difficult diseases — are also increasingly rejecting the low reimbursement rates. The nation’s best cancer treatment centers are often covered by very few exchange plans in their states; if Obamacare customers end up with a difficult-to-treat cancer, they’re likely to face a lower quality of care right off the bat.
- Obamacare's Troubles Are Only Beginning
I Am The Emperor Honey Boo Boo! From the Wall Street Journal: The White House is claiming that the Healthcare.gov website is mostly fixed, that the millions of Americans whose health plans were canceled thanks to government rules may be able to keep them...
- Another Obamacare Lie: Protecting Those With Pre-existing Conditions
We Get the Government We Deserve From IBD: The Affordable Care Act gets curioser and curioser. President Obama promised to protect people with pre-existing conditions and help the uninsured. Yet these vulnerable groups are getting clobbered. Congress...
- New York Doctors Sick Over Obamacare: “it’s Basically Going To Be A Race To The Bottom”
From the New York Post: New York doctors are feeling queasy about ObamaCare — and many won’t participate in the new national insurance program because they fear they’ll go broke, The Post has learned. “ObamaCare is going to send me more...
- Hospitals Cutting Thousands Of Jobs
From the USA Today: Hospitals, a reliable source of employment growth in the recession and its aftermath, are starting to cut thousands of jobs amid falling insurance payments and in-patient visits. The payroll cuts are surprising because...
- Every Time You Hear Someone Claim Ryan’s Plan Will ‘gut’ Or ‘destroy’ Medicare ‘as We Know It’ Remember, You Are Looking At A Blatant, Unabashed Liar
First, Ryan introduced SEVERAL different bills, one of which was cosponsored by dem Cong. Whyte. That is the latest bill.Why are their several bills? Because Mr Ryan and Mr Whyte reached across the aisle to each other to COMMIT AN ACT WHICH WILL DO SOMETHING.What...