UnitedHealth, the nation's largest provider of privately managed Medicare Advantage plans, has dropped thousands of doctors from its networks in recent weeks citing "substantial funding pressure from the federal government." The WSJ reports that physician groups are protesting as many elderly patients are now unsure about whether they need to switch plans to keep seeing their doctors. Doctors in at least 10 states have received termination letters, some citing "significant changes and pressures in the health-care environment." UnitedHealth said its provider networks are always changing and that it expects its Medicare Advantage network "to be 85% to 90% of its current size by the end of 2014," due to the new health law (Obamacare). More job creation?
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DelMarVa's Premier Source for News, Opinion, Analysis, and Human Interest Contact Publisher Joe Albero at alberobutzo@wmconnect.com or 410-430-5349
3 comments:
The informed voters saw this coming and voted against OweBlama.
Joe, I for one, would appreciate a list (again) of our elected officials with phone numbers attached. I know it feels like doing nothing to call... but I want the phone to be so busy they don't have anything else to do but answer the phones. You know... the squeaky hinge theory. Their staff will really get tired of the calls and complain... and the elected officials (who say they are not affected by calls) will not be able to get the work of the day finished for calls. I have seen it work in the past. This is what use to be known as the
"power of the press." Power to the blogs!!
Seems like UHC is shooting its self in the foot with this game plan.
If a doctor accepts their reimbursement rate, then they are in network, if not then they are out of network and you pay the difference.
UHC's explanation of this just does not add up and there is more to the story than what they are saying.
It does not make sense to sell a policy and then tell the patient there are no doctors.
They say its for your benefit, but it's not. The game plan from the article seems to elude that since the gov will not be subsidizing the policies, UHC will be jacking the prices up, which will mean enrollment will fall.
This still does not effect how many doctors participate and their reimbursement rates on a per appointment level.
It has nothing to do with meeting patient needs. There is a backdoor financial deal going on.
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