HMOs to start ad blitz against Medicare cuts

  Dr. Parish has a rather shortsighted view of the role of third party administrators in general and appears not to appreciate their intended role in our "system." Both Cost and Quality have and are suffering from the "stepping back" and demonization of HMOs by stakeholders who do not relect on their professional fiduaciary role to Americans. Physicians need to realize that the AMA (allocation...

Congress is looking at making cuts to Medicare especially the privately administered Medicare Advantage plans. America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) the advocacy group is concerned solely with preserving the healthy margins enjoyed by its members, while Congress is interested in reducing Medicare spending at all costs. Where is the patient in all this?

Medicare Advantage plans provide a large revenue source for the Insurance carriers while increasing the cost to the Medicare funds. In a time where Medicare is looking at becoming insolvent, giving additional money to Insurance carriers to make providing care to the patients  makes no sense  at all. Medicare recipients are sold on these plans by salespeople who are not able or willing to...

The Congress will take up cuts to private Medicare this year in order to fund other priorities including offsetting the mandated 10% Medicare physician fee cut. Even Republicans are conceding there will be cuts to private Medicare. Final decisions will be made at year-end. Just how the Congress and President Bush settle the current battle over S-CHIP funding will tell us a great deal about how private...

First they want to keep cutting physician reimbursements like medicare, but when they realize medicare cuts may affect their ability to provide care for medicare patients, now they want raises? Certainly not a dime of what they want from the government will be put back in the pockets of physicians.  They are just too worried about their profits falling below double digit billions.

It is commonly accepted that private Medicare HMOs are paid 12% to 19% more than traditional Medicare. The Democrats generally see private Medicare as a threat to the longstanding Medicare program. The Congress is ready to dramatically cut the payments HMOs get for Private Medicare. But first, the Congress has to settle the reauthorization of the State Children's Health Insurance Program (S-CHIP). ...

Now the shoe is on the other foot.  The HMO's, for the most part, treat the physician with disdain.  They neglect to realize that they are simply a conduit for paying the physician with the patient supplying them with money.  They have decided that they have a G-d-given right to meddle in diagnosis and treatment by denying  payments.  Often times, they reduce payments to an...

The insurance industry is barking up the wrong tree. It doesn't really matter what happens to this segment of if there are no physicians willing to accept Medicare or HMO rates.