Posted on 03/21/2009 11:43:25 PM PDT by genghis
$75 is the price to visit the doctor in the “After Hours Surgery” here in New Zealand — with insurance 80% if that can be reimbursed, subject to policy maximums.
(”Surgery” has a slightly different meaning here in NZ to what it means in the US. As well as being the process whereby a doctor cuts up a patient, a “surgery” is also another name for the doctor’s office)
Regular price (business hours) is about $45. With insurance 80% of that is reimbursed, subject to policy maximums.
So $79 for a NY doctor isn’t too bad, by New Zealand standards.
(A Big Mac costs NZ$4.95 here, by way of comparison)
Thanks!
I was looking for this article earlier this afternoon.
Not if it's up to them and they can get away with it. That is if they didn't get pre-authorization (dumbest thing I have ever heard of from insurance people who aren't anywhere close to being doctors).
Oh, and let's not forget all the paperwork for the government (Medicare/Medicaid) who can withhold payment for any reason until they decide to pay you! If they can't find a real reason they will make up one.
But he’s bypassing the insurance companies, and that chain of money up to and including kickbacks to politicians. How could they possibly let his scheme of not including payoffs stand?
the state sees money running through its fingers. Rather than Dr. Muney submitting claims to Medicare, he collects cash. Rather than paying the state insurance licensing fees, he shuns insurance, enabling his patients to pay cash. The government worries that if all doctors did this, the government would not be able to continue employing people to process insurance, doctors could cut overhead by laying off insurance billers and accounts receivable employees.
Update:
The State wrote to the doctor and said he could continue to offer his fixed fee $79/month medical care for preventative health but if someone came in complaining of an illness or injury, he would have to charge them at least $33 for that visit. Bureaucracy at work.
http://blog.americanjusticecenter.com/2009/03/state-orders-dr-john-muney-to-stop.html
Insurance Industry Wins, Low-Cost Doctor Raises Fees
Muney, a former surgeon, started offering the $79-a-month plan in 2008.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,508990,00.html
Want laser surgery to correct your vision?
It’s not covered by insurance.
When it first began, it cost a few thousand dollars.
Now, with competition, it’s down to a few hundred dollars.
That’s downright American.
Gov't and Insurance people ..
The barber shop is down the street.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
What a crock. The guy offers medical service like a gym membership and the state freaks out.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
The government’s position is simple: No one should be permitted to offer a viable alternative to socialized medicine.
Medicare says you can’t charge anyone less than you charge Medicare.
Of course, that’s a fiction, because many insurance co’s pay doctors on a percentage of Medicare. I hear that in some areas with a lot of competition among doctors and large groups of doctors, Family Physicians are offered 90% of Medicare.
There’s also the anti-trust laws that prohibit doctors from sharing information about charges and payment. We’re advised that we had better keep even private conversations and on-line discussions, etc., very general or we will be charged under the anti-trust. Also, a large group of doctors can’t be responsible for more than some set percentage of an area’s population -— while there is no such law against the insurance co’s.
Clinton’s administration charge and prosecuted a group of physicians and some hospital officials under these laws in Florida in 96 or 97 because they were advertising rates less than Medicare. The offer was considered unfair collusion. Some of the doctors went to jail, but the officials just paid fines.
Oh, for the good old days when Reno and Freeh held rallies in football stadiums to teach Medicare patients how to turn in their doctors for “fraudandabuse.” These words were melded under Reno. This was code for “We can get triple damages from the courts and pay for our department.” That was around the time that the Office of the Inspector General and the FBI made armed raids on hospitals and doctors’ offices because of alleged “fraudandabuse.”
The State wrote to the doctor and said he could continue to offer his fixed fee $79/month medical care for preventative health but if someone came in complaining of an illness or injury, he would have to charge them at least $33 for that visit. Bureaucracy at work.
The doctor should draft a one-page summary of his experiences with NY state government, which explains how he was forced to raise his visit fee to $33. Then every patient should be given a copy. Let them see the real effects of government up close.
I know of 2 doctors in Scottsdale who have small private family practices and still DO HOUSE CALLS!
I have the best medical care in my life - for $45 a visit.
This guy teaches other Drs how to set up a practice like his.
He files no insurance. If you have private insurance, you can file.
Send this to your Dr.
http://www.aafp.org/fpm/20070600/19brea.html
Insurance is the monetization of risk. Risk is the chance of loss when such chance is probabilistic. So charging a flat annual fee (in monthly installments) to cover, among other things, fortuitous accidents is, in essence, insurance.
What if the doctor were, in reality, running an intentional or unintentional Ponzi scheme by charging less than it cost to provide services? Very quickly he would run out of money and go bankrupt. This would leave patients in the hole to the extent of their prepaid premiums. And by relying on the good Doctor, they would have no other insurance. This is why insurance is regulated.
But I do believe that the State has put formalism ahead of logic. The fact that payments are monthly (I assume) removes the most serious consequences of inadequate pricing. It is an insurance-like service that is being provided. But it does not trigger in a serious way the concerns insurance regulation is intended to deal with.
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