A new survey conducted by the Medical Group Management Association shows that a staggering 214,000 doctors won’t participate in Obamacare.
There are 893,851 active doctors in the United States according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.
So almost a quarter of all doctors won’t be in the ACA. In California it’s an estimated 70%.
Here are some of the reasons why:
1. Reimbursements under Obamacare are at bottom-dollar – they are even lower than Medicare reimbursements, which are already significantly below market rates. “It is estimated that where private plans pay $1.00 for a service, Medicare pays $0.80, and ACA exchange plans are now paying about $0.60,” a study by the think-tank American Action Forum finds. “For example, Covered California plans are setting their plan fee schedules in line with that of Medi-Cal-California’s Medicaid Program-which means exchange plans are cutting provider reimbursement by up to 40 percent.”
2. Doctors are expected to take on more patients to make up for the lost revenue, but that’s not happening, because primary care doctors already have more patients than they can handle. “Furthermore, physicians are worried that exchange plan patients will be sicker than the average patient because they may have been without insurance for extended periods of time, and therefore will require more of the PCPs time at lower pay,” says the study.
The study also points to two reasons that doctors might not get paid at all:
3. An MGMA study indicates that 75% of ACA patients that had seen doctors had chosen plans with high deductibles. Given that most of the patients are low-income, doctors are concerned that the patients cannot meet the deductibles and they will get stuck with the bill.
4. HHS requires that insurers cover customers for an additional 90 days after they have stopped paying their premiums: the insurer covers the first 30 – but, it’s up to the doctor to recoup payment for the last 60 days. This is thenumber one reason providers are opting to not participate in the exchange plans. Currently, about a million people have failed to pay their premiums and had their plans canceled.
So, Obamacare is asking doctors to take on sicker patients for less money, with the risk of not getting paid at all? No wonder doctors are running from these plans!
All those doc are turning away from the sick and feeble masses, breaking the hypocratic oath!
Obama isn’t as smart as people thought! He could not figure out to not mess with Americans!!
Yeah….all doctors should opt out of o bamacare…..go for it.
They should have spoken up before it was passed so that people would realize what was happening. Some probably believed it was going to be okay because the doctors were going along with it.
Don’t worry OBAMA, I’ve always known you were a dumbass
Good.
This is great news, but expensive to have put these doctors through this failure and also for all Americans.
It’s about damn time! I would NEVER enroll in any program where it’s used strictly to keep track of everyone. The same reason I would NEVER allow either of my kids to be implanted with their communist tracking device!!!
WHY didn’t these Doctor’s Stand Up BEFORE obamacare was passed????
stop obamacare get out and vote