Doctors not accepting Obamacare?

[2B]

There's a big difference between "checking your insurance card" and "actually logging into the Insurer's network to verify if you are paid-up on your health insurance". I don't quite know how many times a doctor's office will do the latter. Without directly logging into the insurer's database, they have no way of knowing that your insurance is paid-up. I doubt the insurer will have a field of phone operators standing by to take calls at all hours, day and night, and on weekends (including, but not limited to, emergency room visits, which might involve several different healthcare providers in the same hospital).

I went to a dermatologist yesterday. I haven't been to this doctor for about 3 or 4 years. I filled out my insurance information (it had changed) and they made copies of my insurance card and drivers license. When I was leaving, they had the bill ready that showed I had met my deductible for the year. Clearly, they had contacted my insurance carrier in the nominal hour between when I turned in my information and when I was leaving.

 

[2B]

Just got (an expected) letter from my doctor. Starting December 1, he is NOT accepting insurance at all! He's setting up a new practice where a visit is $50 to be paid at the time of visit.

He figures the new regulations and general insurance hassle costs him so that he had to charge $200 to get the $50. Now he has two secretaries (instead of a room full of insurance chasers) and a credit card machine.

I may be off on the actual numbers but that's the gist of it.

This is what I'd like to find. I started another thread about getting a lower rate by not using insurance at my primary care physician's office and possibly others. It's unlikely I'll meet the deductibles for non-employer based policies ($6,000/yr!!!!) so it seems to make sense to get a lower rate ($50/visit) rather than paying $80 to $120 that goes against the deductible I'll never meet.

My insurance would only be for true catastrophic situations where I would expect to run up a big bill.

 

[MichaelB]

A discussion of their partisan views is probably not going to lead to any useful conclusions for us early retired folk, but it might have some unintended effects. Back on topic, is their anything other than anecdotal evidence that a significant number of doctors are not accepting ACA policies?

 

[2B]

I wonder if this is a red state/blue state issue. We live in a heavily Republican area and I suspect not taking ACA is a way for Republican Doctors to directly boycott ACA.

I have no idea if this is true but I have suspicions.

EastWest Gal says her emails support this premise but I can't help thinking that the doctors, as small business men/women, are trying to maximize their profits. It's no secret that some ACA plans have pushed lower reimbursement rates in their policies. I'm not sure if the ACA exchange plans have additional requirements that may also be more costly for the offices to comply with.

I certainly can agree that the doctors should refuse to accept plans that cause them to reduce their practice's income.

 

[2B]

A discussion of their partisan views is probably not going to lead to any useful conclusions for us early retired folk, but it might have some unintended effects. Back on topic, is their anything other than anecdotal evidence that a significant number of doctors are not accepting ACA policies?

I don't think this forum has the resources to answer your question although I would think that our HHS data hounds should be able to determine a decent estimate rather quickly. Unfortunately, do the people running HHS want this number thrown around if it is high? I'm sure they would love saying "less than 1% of doctors aren't participating in exchange plans." Since I believe the number could be determined easily for anyone with total access to the ACA site, I'm leaning on the number being higher that "they" would like to publicize.

Moving beyond any political intrigue, we know that some plans have more limited availability of doctors. If you care about keeping your doctor, you need to research this before deciding on a plan.

Only 13 "in office" days after today until resignation/retirement on 5 Jan 2015.

 

[Alan]