Healthcare Climate
Dan Varga M.D. accurately describes the problems in the Kentuckiana area regarding physicians and the medical climate. [State's 'negative medical climate']
The only additional comment is that some of the physicians that actually left the state, practice here in southern Indiana. Therefore they still are a major referral source for some Louisville area hospitals.
The more concerning trend is the decline in overall physicians practicing and graduating from Medical School. There has not been a substantial increase in class sizes for years. The rate at which physicians are choosing not to practice certain areas of medicine is becoming a critical problem.
Insurance companies continue to cut the fees paid to physicians and continually require more hurdles to get anything accomplished adding to the growing overhead in the office expenses. With declining reimbursements and increasing overhead, physicians will continue to make tough choices on which services they can and cannot perform. The average insurance write-off for primary care physicians is 35% and for specialists like cardiology it may reach 65 percent. This means that for every 100 dollars billed, the maximum return you can expect is 65 dollars. That is if the patient pays their copay and the Insurance doesn’t find a reason to reject the claim or delay the payment. The healthcare crisis will get worse!!
The only additional comment is that some of the physicians that actually left the state, practice here in southern Indiana. Therefore they still are a major referral source for some Louisville area hospitals.
The more concerning trend is the decline in overall physicians practicing and graduating from Medical School. There has not been a substantial increase in class sizes for years. The rate at which physicians are choosing not to practice certain areas of medicine is becoming a critical problem.
Insurance companies continue to cut the fees paid to physicians and continually require more hurdles to get anything accomplished adding to the growing overhead in the office expenses. With declining reimbursements and increasing overhead, physicians will continue to make tough choices on which services they can and cannot perform. The average insurance write-off for primary care physicians is 35% and for specialists like cardiology it may reach 65 percent. This means that for every 100 dollars billed, the maximum return you can expect is 65 dollars. That is if the patient pays their copay and the Insurance doesn’t find a reason to reject the claim or delay the payment. The healthcare crisis will get worse!!
posted by Anonymous at 6:16 AM
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