A co-worker whose 3 year old daughter needed to see her pediatrician for severe vomiting and diarrhea was denied the visit because her insurance did not have the pediatrician as her primary care physician. Mom applied to get the physician changed 14 days ago but it can take up to 8 weeks to get the primary changed. Mom was going to pay cash but the doc's office cannot take any cash payments if the child has insurance due to the new health care law that just came out.
The office explained that all patient social security numbers could be run through a database that shows what insurance coverage they have. If a patient already has coverage and a different primary care physician then they cannot even take the patient on as a cash paying patient. This is the new system.....WTF were our politicians thinking? They weren't because the people that wrote this bill don't know jack or sh*t about how our health care system works.
The office also told her some other things about government regulation and limitation that better not be true if we are to have any hope at all. Basically it sounds like a LOT of patients are going to end up at the ER because it will be a virtual clusterf*ck to get your primary physician changed if you don't like them for any reason.
Mom had to wait until after office hours to take her daughter to the ER so she could be admitted and her physician could see her on his rounds at the hospital until her insurance changes to him on her policy. I am happy she finally got to see her physician of choice even though it was a b*tch of an Easter Egg hunt to get there. I foresee this to cause lots of problems and worsen the ER wait times in the future.
Holy Sh*t! We are in for a very rude awakening when all of this is implemented!
***I am disheartened that no one appreciated my stint channelling the Republican alarmist bullsh*t like Rush Limbaugh does. When I develop my own Oxycontin habit you will receive my words as the gospel from a priest.
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11 comments:
This is exactly what 'Grunt Doc' predicted on his web blog a few months ago. Sometimes I wish that I was still 12 working in my father's little apothecary.....
Hey Big N Tasty, I think your knee-jerk reaction to the health care bill might be a little premature. Most of the changes haven't taken place (with the exception of tax benefits). It sounds like either your coworker isn't telling you the whole story, or more likely, someone at the MD's office fed her a line of shit. Besides, I've had to change my PCP with my own insurance company before. It's actually quite simple and fast. Sounds fishy to me.
This has nothing to do with the new health care bill which has not come into effect yet. You are making up stories to frighten people, and do a standard right-wing complainorama. This happened because of her god-awful insurance company. Period.
Yes moron MC but have you had to do it since the new "improved" health care law passed. I doubt it.
I am stumped. I don't think any changes have been made since the law passed. Sorry-but her story doesn't add up. I agree with Mc Rph :).
No changes have been implemented yet.
The story is a crock.
Chicken Little lives!
And the only moron in the comments section (so far, anyways) is Anonymous 2:05pm. You, DenaliDriveThru, and "Grunt Doc" (if DenaliDriveThru is telling the truth) have all drank too much Republican Kool-Aid. Maybe it's not too late to get your stomachs pumped (and your brains working).
If you'd like to know what you're talking about, instead of indulging in b.s. scare tactics check out the link:
http://dpc.senate.gov/dpcdoc-sen_health_care_bill.cfm
This is the state medicaid system that has already adopted many changes.
Wow. Shot down by the Koop. Sheesh.
I thought he was a dyed-in-the wool Republican, seeing that he served under Reagan.
"Anonymous said...
Yes moron MC but have you had to do it since the new "improved" health care law passed. I doubt it."
In fact, I have not changed my PCP since the new health care bill has passed. However, I also recognize a bullshit story when I read one.
So this is apparently a problem with state medicaid, and not the federal health bill that just passed (as you implied). Seeing as how your state has unique financial problems, I am not surprised and this is nothing new. The 8 week wait to change a PCP seemed a little strange to me, so I called the medicaid hotline. Did you know that in your state, the PCP can be changed over the phone... immediately? I know! I was shocked too. You should really pass that info on to your coworker since she is obviously ill-informed about her family's health care plan. This will prevent any similar problems for her down the road. I still love you BnT! But I don't think this type of fear-mongering is helpful. The federal health care bill is a HUGE deal. It will implement many, many changes and will most definitely change the face of our profession forever. More importanly, it will affect the lives of millions of underserved Americans. It is because of that very fact that it is imperative we keep our facts straight, and not allow ourselves to fall prey to the scare tactics of either extreme end of the political spectrum. Don't lose your heads in this! With the exception of Anonymous 2:05pm, we are all intelligent people here.
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