Wednesday, June 25, 2014

Medicare, Docs and the ObamaTax

Our friend Dr Rob Lamberts has joined the growing list of providers who no longer service Medicare "beneficiaries:"

WFXG FOX54 Augusta - Your News One Hour Earlier

This is significant: as we've long noted, Medicare reimbursement rates have been driving docs from the program for a while. But what has that got to do with the ObamaTax?

Well, it's hardly a stretch to see how the same issues (lower reimbursements and more strictly controlled networks) will soon drive more doc's to turning away from accepting any insurance (especially when all plans become ACA-compliant).

I'm not convinced, by the by, that this is necessarily a bad thing: a lot of the expenses one incurs at, for example, a Primary Care provider would be considered 'routine,' and it's long been our position that routine expenses ought not be covered by health insurance.

Interesting trend.
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