Concierge Medicine Gains Ground
Imagine what would happen if a growing number of docs … left Medicare/Medicaid/Insurance behind and opened a practice based on a monthly/annual fee .. and limit the number of pts in a practice…
Would bureaucrats allow such a “free enterprise system” to operate without their oversight and intrusion ?
But how could they “force” docs to accept Medicare/Medicaid/Obamacare pts ?
How about refusing to renew their DEA number.. unless they don’t have a certain per-cent of their practice of pts with Medicare/Medicaid/Obamacare ?
Is prescriptive authority a given because you they have a state license ? Is it a privilege or a right to have prescriptive authority because they have a medical license ?
Every avalanche starts with a few loose flakes !
Filed under: General Problems
You bet your bottom dollar they will flourish. No insurance audits. No medicare problems. No insurance what so ever. All cash upfront. Members premium: 150.00 Mo & up. House calls, work calls, telemedicine visual skype. Extra for labs and other referals. Almost unlimited refills. Sports medicine, cater to the rich. Customized medical tailored Tx.. Capitolism at it’s highest decadence. You pay they prey.
To answer the question: the government, a proxy for the insurance companies, will never allow the concierge approach to grow. It is too much of a threat to the insurance companies. At some point, Congress will pass legislation, or the executive branch will issue some regulation to force these independent docs to accept Medicare, Medicaid, and Obamacare.
I agree with bcmigal that we should be outraged over the government shutdown. We pay enormous taxes to fund the government and we need to, at least, get a functioning government for our money. These shut downs are stupid, crazy crap. We need to ‘throw the bums’ out of office. The one important thing we save, other than the workers salaries, is some ridiculous laws, rules, and regulations coming from all these useless agencies.
In my first post, I failed to answer your question. If we look at Obamacare, who benefits? Answer: insurance companies. The concierge approach is a threat to the insurance companies. The insurance companies are so big and powerful that they can make or break a politician running for re-election. So, the politicians will not allow the concierge approach to gain much traction before they pass laws to break it, such as forcing them to accept Medicare and Medicaid.
This concierge stuff is nothing new. We have had a group in our town for over 10 years. I think we should adopt a “wait and see” attitude about the ACA. No one has yet to complain about zero copy for 3 months of contraceptives. The full force of the Act will been seen in 2014 and beyond. We should all be outraged about the shutdown, since even the Medicare D servers are slow today.
What a great idea! As Obamacare puts the squeeze on providers, I expect those providers to be looking to alternative approaches to delivering healthcare and getting paid for it.