pretty sure, me and mine will come out on top of this one. I could be wrong, we'll see.
As I stated earlier, perhaps your time would be better spent trying to figure out how to make the most of this situation instead of bitching about it on RIU...
bottom line,
I really wish what you write next was true, but it's what they said it would do, not what it's going to do for realz.
streamlining medical billing and such= good thing
I left a good paying, cushy job as a Rehab Director to become a consultant for provider offices to get kickbacks for meeting meaningful use and PQRS compliance. It pays very well because it takes someone with both clinical training and computer training with knowledge of HL7 interfaces to be able to navigate through the paperwork landmines. It has made paperwork so cumbersome that there are more nurses and clinicians working in healthcare that are filling out paperwork to the government than providing care.
covering preexisting conditions= good thing
Medicare/caid deny more coverage based on chronic conditions than all private insurance combined. It sucks no matter who does it but at least the private sector can no longer do it. Better hope you never end up on a government plan.
getting health care to millions of previously uncovered americans=good thing
CBO estimates there will still be 30M citizens without insurance (before amnesty)
breaking the grip of the insurance companies=good thing
If only...
It's happening folks................get used to it.
I'm not only getting used to it, I'm profiting quite nicely from it. I still do some PRN therapy because I like it, but what I'm doing now is pretty cool too. It can be aggravating as shit dealing with government compliance and repetitive red tape, but I'm a paid for trained professional. Imagine what the average Doctor is going through now. That's why they pay me. Do you think that will cause costs to go up or down?
I do have days where I feel like all I'm doing is filling out TPS reports, but it's rewarding easing professionals pain so they can worry more about patients than government. For those docs that can't afford a me, I really feel for them and expect them to sell out to hospitals. Thanks to government regulations aided by hospital corp lobbying, they get to bill at a different reimbursement for the same procedures.
A real life example of this is having a stress test performed at your cardiologist bills 700 to medicare. A stress test in the hospital is at a reimbursement rate of 2300 and change. What happens when the cardiologist sells his practice to the hospital and starts working for them is now the stress test in his office bills under the hospital code making it cost 2300ish at either place. The government regulations in place now count that office as part of the hospital. The doctor also just lost his incentive to work weekends and take on new patients. So while we are claiming to add all these people to the system, there will be less hours of available doctors. For the first time ever, more doctors work for hospitals than for themselves and it's trending higher.
So, reimbursement goes up, demand goes up, supply goes down. I just don't see how this is going to cut costs. I try, but it just will is not enough for me.
A 700B cut from medicare at a time when the largest section of our country is reaching medicare age and creating an atmosphere where medicare will be reimbursing inflated hospital rates even at a doctors office is what we've done. Like I said earlier, if my plan was to bankrupt the system so we could blow it up and start over, this is an excellent start.
