Another Bout of Physician Payment Insanity
Most Americans do not know that the major reason for our out-of-control healthcare costs and poor care is that our government and private insurance have adopted a Soviet style, non-market, bureaucratic method of payments that have no relationship to reality. The American Medical Association (AMA) and all our specialty medical societies have been co-opted to be active participants as they compete to outdo each other for tidbits of financial gain. In essence our medical groups have deserted their members and the public. Those specialties that will have decreased payments in the latest cycle have unbelievably agreed to the process, but not the results.
The winners are the bureaucrats and middlemen that are robbing us blind. The solution is to allow those who wish to direct their own care have tax deferred robust health accounts so that individuals can pay cash for most care, as well as nationally available catastrophic insurance. These accounts would be funded by employers and government deposits, assuring universal access.
We trust the poor with food stamps, why not those Americans who want control of their own healthcare?
The only real problem with a cash discount is that it basically illegal if you are a Medicare participating physician. My understanding is that Medicare has to be billed your lowest fee, so if an agent from Medicare catches you, you had better have a good explanation….like perhaps a downgraded code. I always worry when the cash discounted patients decide to come back and ask for a receipt…..which we print up as a superbill. Many offices now require any patients offered a cash discount to sign an agreement that states that patient will not submit charge on their own to any insurance company.
Well put. If we could only make it happen
Ken, Thanks, perhaps we could help things along with most physicians offering a cash option. This could be attractive to those who have large deductibles. Ken