@151949 wrote:
@september wrote:
@Pitzel wrote:
@151949
My internist's office just told me that they are going to charge $200.00 a year for filling out paperwork, doctor talking to patients on the phone and other miscellaneous things. I think this is absolutely ridiculous. And insurance doesn't cover this.
Most of the long time physicians where I live are now in concierge plans. We pay $1800/year, not covered by insurance. Thank you ACA!
This has absolutely nothing to do with the ACA - it is unethical doctors taking advantage of fearful patients.
I wouldn't say it has nothing to do with the ACA. The ACA shifted a lot of costs onto private docs and many were forced into making an uncomfortable choice between joining a medical group, retiring, or finding a way to get more money upfront to help offset the increased costs, and concierge medicine is one way to do that. Digitizing all medical records was one such cost imposed by the ACA.
To give you some idea of the costs involved, in California they're digtizing the medical records of 130,000 inmates. The total cost (as of 12/11/2016) was $400 million. That's $3,076.92 per inmate for people who are generally healthy and have minimal medical records. If you're a private practice doctor with hundreds/thousands of patients many of whom are quite sickly and have big files, and you're looking at a similar cost per patient, your options are very limited. (Here's a link to the article about the cost of digitizing the prison medical records. http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2016/12/11/california-prison-medical-record-cost-doubles/
My Mom's old cardiologist had to join a group as the cost of putting all of his patient records into a computerized system would have bankrupted him. He had a small two person staff and thousands of files each containing dozens, if not hundreds of tests results and reports that would all have to be placed into a computerized system within a relatively short timeline. The price he was quoted by the various agencies in the area to digitize his records was more than he could afford. His patients were mostly all on Medcare/Medicaid so his rates were largely fixed and he couldn't pass on the cost to his patients. There aren't enough well-to-do patients in the area for him to go the concierge route, so he had to join a medical group and give up his private practice.
That was all a result of the ACA and its requirement to digitize all medical records. The costs that imposed on many physicians was absurdly high. A local lawyer Mom's cardiologist consulted advised him that he would have to pay someone to do it as if he used his staff and something was entered inaccurately or overlooked, his office could be held responsible and sued. By using an outside firm to digitize the records they'd be responsible for any mistake and not his office. He was also advised to keep and maintain his written records to prove that his data was correct if there should be an issue down the road.
The ACA created a lot of problems for a lot of people and was far from a panacea. It forced some doctors out of the business completely and forced many others into big changes in how they practice medicine.
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