Forcing Doctors to Take Medicare Patients

Walter L Newton wrote: In the House committee meeting I'm watching right now a Democrat house member has suggested that Medicaid and Medicare payments must be adjusted upward.

That should work well since the ACA stripped out $716 Billion from Medicare.

Walter L Newton wrote: In the House committee meeting I'm watching right now a Democrat house member has suggested that Medicaid and Medicare payments must be adjusted upward.

There we go, the move to single payer.

I would love to see a comparison of medicare reimbursements and the big insurance companies like BC/BS. I switched to medicare in the middle of my cancer treatments when I practically lived in doctor offices and had tests every couple weeks. The reimbursements to the doctors, labs, and hospital changed very little, the big difference was in how quickly the doctors got paid, medicare was considerably f faster.

Edited to add... There was more of a difference in Colorado than in AZ

archer wrote: I would love to see a comparison of medicare reimbursements and the big insurance companies like BC/BS. I switched to medicare in the middle of my cancer treatments when I practically lived in doctor offices and had tests every couple weeks. The reimbursements to the doctors, labs, and hospital changed very little, the big difference was in how quickly the doctors got paid, medicare was considerably f faster.

Edited to add... There was more of a difference in Colorado than in AZ

Well there must be some reason why so many doctors don't except medicare patients... money is money no matter where it comes from. I would think that if medicare reimbursements came in faster than insurance, and paid as much, that doctors would be welcoming medicare patients with open arms. I don't know the details of how reimbursements are paid state to state, but there must be a reason for the disparity and the unwillingness for doctors to all accept medicare.

Rick wrote:

archer wrote: I would love to see a comparison of medicare reimbursements and the big insurance companies like BC/BS. I switched to medicare in the middle of my cancer treatments when I practically lived in doctor offices and had tests every couple weeks. The reimbursements to the doctors, labs, and hospital changed very little, the big difference was in how quickly the doctors got paid, medicare was considerably f faster.

Edited to add... There was more of a difference in Colorado than in AZ

Well there must be some reason why so many doctors don't except medicare patients... money is money no matter where it comes from. I would think that if medicare reimbursements came if faster than insurance, and paid as much, that doctors would be welcoming medicare patients with open arms. I don't know the details of how reimbursements are paid state to state, but there must be a reason for the disparity and the unwillingness for doctors to all accept medicaid.

Good point.
The only reason our doctor is taking my parents on Medicare is because they were patients before on private insurance.

Rick wrote:

archer wrote: I would love to see a comparison of medicare reimbursements and the big insurance companies like BC/BS. I switched to medicare in the middle of my cancer treatments when I practically lived in doctor offices and had tests every couple weeks. The reimbursements to the doctors, labs, and hospital changed very little, the big difference was in how quickly the doctors got paid, medicare was considerably f faster.

Edited to add... There was more of a difference in Colorado than in AZ

Well there must be some reason why so many doctors don't except medicare patients... money is money no matter where it comes from. I would think that if medicare reimbursements came in faster than insurance, and paid as much, that doctors would be welcoming medicare patients with open arms. I don't know the details of how reimbursements are paid state to state, but there must be a reason for the disparity and the unwillingness for doctors to all accept medicare.

So far I have not had any doctors I wanted to see refuse to take medicare patient, but most of my medical is done here in AZ..... If you didn't take medicare here you would be shutting out a huge patient base. I did have to get a cardiologist in Denver, I researched doctors and choose 3 that were highly rated, I hoped one of them would take new medicare patients. The first one I called gave me an appointment. Perhaps it is different elsewhere, I don't know. As I mentioned in another thread, when I had insurance before medicare there were several times over the years I had to change doctors because my insurance no longer was accepted. It's not like there aren't other doctors to choose from, but it is a pain when you have to change.

I think Rick meant MEDICAID in the OP, the new signups on the exchanges are not medicare.

It is well known archer, that the order of payments/ prices is as follows on average:

Cash payers uninsured (highest)
Private insurance
Medicare
Medicaid (lowest)

Just GOOGLE it- there are thousands of articles.

I know that LOL, my question is how much of a difference are we talking about. If Rick meant medicaid then that is a whole different story, and not related to my post. Medicaid has always had limited doctors available. I would like to see clinics set up where ever possible to handle medicaid patients, I think that would help with costs, and though inconvenient for some, when your health insurance is paid for some inconvenience is to be expected.

Why do a lot of doctors not take Medicare?
I think Doctors should take all patients if they don't now.
Someone explain this to me who is a doctor

Morningstar1954 wrote: Why do a lot of doctors not take Medicare?
I think Doctors should take all patients if they don't now.
Someone explain this to me who is a doctor

The payment plans.
If someone pays cash, the doctor can get 100%.
Insurance companies may only pay 50%
Medicare might only pay 35%
So would you like people filling up your restaurant who were only going to pay you 35 cents on the dollar? And you have to submit paperwork to get your 35 cents.

My brother who runs a couple accupuncture clinics only takes cash and credit, too much of a hassle dealing with insurance companies and goverment plans.