California Medical Assn. Opposes Senate Healthcare Bill | |
malu User ID: 800077 United States 12/03/2009 07:29 PM Report Abusive Post Report Copyright Violation | |
Anonymous Coward User ID: 642285 United States 12/03/2009 07:38 PM Report Abusive Post Report Copyright Violation | The CMA is NOT an charitable organization. Their concerns over "care to the elderly and poor may increase in cost" really is seated in their fear that they may not be reimbursed as generously for providing routine care to these two populations as they have been in the past. An office visit, blood pressure check, lab results review, and a brief physical can cost as much as 290.xx in some of the higher cost areas of CA. In the less costly areas, the same reimbursement for the same services is usually held to $150 or a little bit more. The lower overhead areas will be forced to hold their costs down and the high rent areas will no longer get a "kicker" in their reimbursement based on their zip code! While they may well pay something more for their rent, they don't pay 38% more and even if they did, the differential per patient should not reflect that whole 38%. The docs in the middle of Beverly Hills and West LA or Downtown San Francisco are afraid that they're going to get paid at the same rate as their peers in Palmdale or Oakland or other less affluent areas. Part of the new healthcare bill wants to pay docs of equal skill sets the same for provision of the same services. While a specialist would always get a few dollars more per component of billing (because of his extra experience and expertise) the fact that his office is in a high dollar zip code does not make him a better doctor, nor does it justify his charging more for a decision he made many years ago when he went into practice, about where to locate his office! Yet now both MediCare and the State run Medi-Cal are paying docs in high cost areas more for the same services than they pay the docs in the lower cost areas. The physicians do not want to loose this "kicker" that partially underwrites the cost of their overhead. But on the other hand, should you be charged more because you visit a doctor in an inner city and his rent is higher there than the guy in the suburbs? This is just one area where the CMA is looking out for their own wallets and lying to the public and to congress about the true nature of their real concern. I for one would much rather hear them say "We need the extra dollars because our office costs us a lot more in this area or that area - but they don't have the guts to be candid about it. They try to manipulate and turn it around and make it a patient care issue - which it is not. It's purely and wholly a financial issue, and it would be nice if they acted as though the public was smart enough to figure out that simple truth. |
Anonymous Coward User ID: 737080 United States 12/03/2009 07:40 PM Report Abusive Post Report Copyright Violation | |