Why is there a law that prevents this doctor from doing this? Who is it designed to protect? The doctors? Patients? Or the insurance companies?
"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
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.”