Scott W. Atlas, writing at the Wall Street Journal (Cross-Posted at the Razor), warns about the coming two-tiered medical system.
About one-third of primary-care physicians and one-fourth of specialists have already completely closed their practices to Medicaid patients. Over 52% of physicians have already limited the access that Medicare patients have to their practices, or are planning to, according to a 2012 survey by Merritt Hawkins for the Physicians Foundation. More doctors than ever already refuse Medicaid and Medicare due to inadequate payments for care, and that trend will only accelerate as government lowers reimbursements.
In order to cut costs insurance plans are narrowing their networks, removing access to the best hospitals in the country (including Barnes Hospital in my hometown.)
For cancer care, the overwhelming majority of America’s best hospitals in the National Comprehensive Cancer Network—including MD Anderson Cancer Center of Houston, New York’s Memorial Sloan-Kettering, Barnes Hospital in St. Louis, and the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance uniting doctors from Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, UW Medicine and Seattle Children’s—are not covered in most of their states’ exchange plans.
Elements of this are already in place. The best paying jobs on physician job boards are “closed practices” run by large companies for their employees, or concierge practices that do not accept insurance.
Meanwhile, concierge practices are increasing rapidly, as patients who can afford it, along with many top doctors, rush to avoid the problems of an increasingly restrictive health system. The American Academy of Private Physicians estimates that there are now about 4,400 concierge physicians, 30% more than last year. In a recent Merritt Hawkins survey, about 7% to 10% of physicians planned to transition to concierge or cash-only practices in the next one to three years. With doctors already spending 22% of their time on nonclinical paperwork, they will find more government intrusion under ObamaCare regulations taking even more time away from patient care.
Moving towards socialized medicine inevitably leads to a two-tiered system. Having lived for 5 years under socialized medicine in Japan, I’ve seen the both tiers, and the quality of care diverged significantly between them to the point where we chose a private hospital for the birth of The Kid. The only question will be whether the quality of care good enough for the vast majority of Americans, or the care will stagnate and decline as the best and brightest health care providers move into the higher-paying private practices and hospitals.
No comments:
Post a Comment