My Doctor's Thoughts On Health Care Reform

Something your doctor did not mention (not surprising, given the schedule they now must keep; higher costs to them translates to more patients per day to be seen) is how he is treated through Medicare. When he sees a Medicare patient he submits billing via a computerized program that tracks not only the information pertinent to the patient's visit and condition, but also how often that patient has been seen and for what, how many other patients the doctor has seen, how many of these other patients might have had the same diagnosis and/or tests, treatments, etc. recommended, and how all this compares to a) other doctors/patients in the area and b) other doctors/patients across the country. If the computer identifies any sort of "pattern" in the billing, your doctor could be charged with "Medicare fraud" -- see, no one makes a simple billing error to Medicare, not since the Clintons took investigative authority away from the HHS Solicitor General and assigned it to the Department of Justice/FBI. If the computer identifies no problem, then your doctor is reimbursed at a rate ranging from 20%-80% of the amount it actually costs him to provide the services. THAT'S the model for the public plan Obama/Pelosi/Reid want everyone to share in. What do you think your doctor thinks about that?

What I did not remember to add in this post was what he DID tell me about Medicare.

He said that the most basic thing EVERYONE should have is some kind of insurance or a private health savings plan that will give a patient AT LEAST an annual physical. Currently, if a person on Medicare is not complaining of a specific ailment and hasn't got any apparent issues, that person is not covered for an annual physical exam. This is a very basic, very important exam that can identify and head off any serious problem in individuals making up a demographic which is highly prone to serious health issues. In the need to save costs so that administrators can be paid handsome salaries, something as basic as the annual exam is not covered.

Since Dr. B. is primarily concerned with the quality of care he provides, I'm not surprised that the issues you mention didn't make it into our short discussion. He did have a lot of other patients to see also.

Thanks for your input. The last thing we need is for the government to run health care the way it runs Medicaid, Medicare, Welfare, the Post Office, the Congressional Bank and the Congressional Cafeteria.