ACA Forcing Doctors Into Cash Only Practice

More and more doctors that are deciding to leave the insurance way of medicine is surly problematic. But not to worry, the progressive socialists will send in IRS agents and federal marshall's to force doctors to accept patients with insurance and those without insurance.

What's really neat is that the IRS agents will decide, Affordable Care Act (ACA) mandated and IPAB inforced payment schedule, what the doctors will get paid, if anything beyond the ACA schedule. Those doctors, that haven't left the country, that refuse to serve the state, will be fined or jailed. Really? Look what happened to the guy that made a video that the progressives socialists found objectionable.

Is this extreme? Over the top? Maybe, but what we have seen recently from the Dept of Justice, there is no scenario of federal overreach that is too extreme.

Welcome to the world of progressive liberal left socialists and ObamaCare - I'm sure you don't believe this could happen here, but to be sure it doesn't, understand this could be what's at stake this November!

More Doctors Moving to Cash-Only Practices
Source: Roni Caryn Rabin, "When Doctors Stop Taking Insurance," New York Times, October 1, 2012.

October 4, 2012
Efforts by insurers to lower physician fees to make health care more affordable are achieving the opposite effect. In fact, many physicians are moving to a system where they no longer accept insurance and instead require upfront payments, says the New York Times.

•A survey of 13,575 doctors by the Physicians Foundation found that in the next three years, 50 percent of primary care physicians plan to take steps that reduce patient access to their services.
•Of those, 7 percent plan to switch to cash-only or concierge practices.
•This is especially problematic considering the country is facing a shortage of primary care physicians -- by 2025 the nation will have 100,000 fewer doctors than needed.

As doctors stop taking regular insurance, patients are free to take their business elsewhere. More insurance plans are beginning to cover out-of-network expenses. However, patients only get reimbursed for a fraction of their out-of-pocket expenses. Furthermore, making out-of-pocket expenses deters people from going to see their doctor for preventative treatment, instead waiting until they get sick.

Experts advise a few precautions when dealing with a physician that doesn't accept insurance:

•Understand how much reimbursement you receive for out-of-network coverage.
•Try to estimate your out-of-pocket costs in advance so you can pay the physician with money saved in a flexible spending account, which is sheltered from taxes.

As more doctors begin to decline insurance, many wonder whether the Affordable Care Act can succeed by expanding insurance to more Americans if primary care doctors are walking away from insurance.