marco427
03-30-2010, 07:06 PM
Here’s a forward look at the likely impact of health care reform from the doctors’ own consultants and advisers. This is stuff that in the euphoria of finally getting the damnable thing passed, the political types glossed over.
First,full disclosure. I’m not a doctor, and I don’t even play one on TV. But when I was diagnosed with a rare blood cancer in 2005, I concluded that the really worthwhile internet information that I would need to make an informed decision about treatment was only available to doctors. So I told a little lie and became Mark the oncologist with a mythical practice in upstate New York. It worked like a charm, and that’s why I was still able to access the article that I will be quoting. If anyone doubts the credibility of the source, I’d be happy to provide details.
Note that these are all from people who the physician world pays to help them maximize the profit of their practices:
“It's too extreme for most doctors to eliminate all Medicare patients from their practice, and many would not want to. But doctors can still allocate fewer resources to that patient, says Jeff Denning, a practice management consultant with PPG Consulting in La Jolla, California.”
"Physicians who can replace Medicare patients with other patients should limit appointment exposure to Medicare patients and give better service, quicker availability, to the patients with better paying plans”
"Doctors have to ask themselves: how many hours of the week can we afford to see patients paying 21.2% less than they were yesterday?" says Scroggins. "Doctors may need to think of changing the amount of time they allocate to Medicare patient encounters or limiting the hours per day they can accept Medicare patient appointments”.
“Or, while it may sound unfair or insensitive, a practice could allocate only a day a week for Medicare patients and move those patients through much faster.”
Now I ask you, if you were a Medicare patient, would the above advice give you a warm and fuzzy feeling that you’re likely to be well served in the new Obamacare world? Can anyone say rationing?
First,full disclosure. I’m not a doctor, and I don’t even play one on TV. But when I was diagnosed with a rare blood cancer in 2005, I concluded that the really worthwhile internet information that I would need to make an informed decision about treatment was only available to doctors. So I told a little lie and became Mark the oncologist with a mythical practice in upstate New York. It worked like a charm, and that’s why I was still able to access the article that I will be quoting. If anyone doubts the credibility of the source, I’d be happy to provide details.
Note that these are all from people who the physician world pays to help them maximize the profit of their practices:
“It's too extreme for most doctors to eliminate all Medicare patients from their practice, and many would not want to. But doctors can still allocate fewer resources to that patient, says Jeff Denning, a practice management consultant with PPG Consulting in La Jolla, California.”
"Physicians who can replace Medicare patients with other patients should limit appointment exposure to Medicare patients and give better service, quicker availability, to the patients with better paying plans”
"Doctors have to ask themselves: how many hours of the week can we afford to see patients paying 21.2% less than they were yesterday?" says Scroggins. "Doctors may need to think of changing the amount of time they allocate to Medicare patient encounters or limiting the hours per day they can accept Medicare patient appointments”.
“Or, while it may sound unfair or insensitive, a practice could allocate only a day a week for Medicare patients and move those patients through much faster.”
Now I ask you, if you were a Medicare patient, would the above advice give you a warm and fuzzy feeling that you’re likely to be well served in the new Obamacare world? Can anyone say rationing?