Well here's something that finally makes sense in the health care debate!
For more information on this group of doctors, visit their Facebook page.
From Sermo.com; the group responsible for the petition:
Join Sermo to add your signature to the Physicians’ Appeal below. And let lawmakers know that you want to contribute to the reform process. After the August recess, the signed Appeal will be delivered to Senators in every state. Each Senator will then be invited to speak with the Sermo community about the real issues at the root of spiraling healthcare costs.
To the American People,
We, the physicians of this country want to reform healthcare to improve the quality and access to care for our patients while reducing costs. True healthcare reform will only succeed if:
Unnecessary tests and procedures are reduced through tort and malpractice reform.
Doctors are allowed to spend more time with their patients and less time on paperwork by streamlining billing and making pricing more transparent (create an alternative to CPT codes).
Medical decisions are made by physicians and their patients, not insurance company administrators.
Adequate supply of qualified physicians is assured by revising the methods used for calculating reimbursements.
We invite policy makers to work directly with the men and women who are on the frontlines of healthcare each and every day caring for the citizens of this country.
We pledge to be partners in true healthcare reform, improving the healthcare delivery system in this country while honoring the Hippocratic oath that we all have taken.
Respectfully Yours,
America's Physicians
How does HR-3200 figure in to this?
ReplyDeleteTalking points from HR-3200:
Page 40; Section 134 – Regulate all insurance plans, both in and out of the Exchange.
Pages 84-87; Section 203 – Decide which treatments patients could receive and at what cost.
The other gnarly problem I foresee relates to malpractice lawsuits which Tort reform will not abolish. Understanding that nothing in this world is perfect which includes doctors and their medical procedures, who does the patient or the family of the patient sue when the patient meets an untimely demise due to carelessness by the hospital or the doctor? The doctor or the insurance provider?
Under the guidelines described in Section 134 & Section 203, above, in pursuit of a diagnosis a patient receives a battery of tests which are supported by the insurance plan. However, other tests which could uncover the cause of the disease were rejected because the plan does not cover them or deemed to be too costly to spare the life of the patient.
Alternately, the patient is deemed to be too old to receive life-saving care. In either case, the patient dies.
Who does the patient’s family sue? Certainly they cannot sue the doctor. In a court of law, I believe it can be shown the doctor acted responsibly by employing all procedures and tests allowed to the patient under the provisions of HR-3200 – regardless of which insurance provider is providing that coverage. That leaves little choice to the family for redress.
Next, the family looks up the line to the government controlled insurance company. If a health care bill does allow for a family to sue the government insurance company and by extension, the government itself, the successful outcome will be based solely upon the quality of the lawyer. You can bet the government’s lawyer is going to bring all of the resources to bear (an army of lawyers… cha-ching) to protect the “people’s money”.
And so there we have it; the people’s own tax money used in defense against their legal case.
I am a pediatrician and a small business owner of a 6-physician practice. I understand the dire need for health insurance reform from all perspectives. Our current overhead is ~65% of billing. Our average reimbursement from private insurance companies is ~88%. Our average Medicaid reimbursement is ~35%. As a small business owner, if I can purchase a cheaper insurance with the same or better coverage for my employees, then I will change companies. As more and more fellow employers follow suit, more and more patients will hold public option insurance. As a physician, I am concerned about reimbursement. I do not doubt that a public option insurance will compete with private insurance for premiums and coverage. I seriously doubt that it will compete with regards to reimbursement. Initially, we can refuse to accept the insurance because it pays too low. However, if a large enough percentage of the patients change, then we will be forced to accept public option insurance. If the public option reimburses more on the line of Medicaid (which is likely), then we get run out of business. Even as the cost of providing health care goes down, the overhead of providing care will not. I fear a public option insurance will be the death of primary care unless it competes with private insurance companies in regards to reimbursement!
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