EXPRESS LINE - 2 SYMPTOMS or LESS

On January 1, Medicare reimbursements were reduced for many (if not most) services rendered by medical providers.  Adding insult to injury is the fact that,
even though insurance companies are not supposed to use Medicare as its basis
for coverage or reimbursements, non-Medicare insurance policies use Medicare as
its benchmark for what they pay for medical services.

As medical insurance premiums have increased drastically over the past 10 years, the reimbursement dollars for service continues to drop.  Primary Care Physicians are increasingly closing the doors on their private practices.  Over the next 3 years, the various medical associations estimate that over half of all Primary Care Physicians will be an employee of a hospital…hospital owned practice…or large physician group. This roughly translates into a business model where the employee (your physician) gets a salary in return for meeting a quota (seeing a certain number of patients per shift).

Now that the practice of medicine is on the same playing field as any other Big-Box volume discount retail outlet… Walmart, CVS, and other national retail powerhouses, have decided to offer medical services in their stores.  This is a terrific example of American ingenuity!  While you’re at the store to pick up deodorant, a new toaster, and a bag of chips…you can see a nurse practitioner, or even a physician, about that nagging pain in your chest!  The idea is to offer people a convenient location for healthcare access AND at a reduced price.

Retail convenient medical services have been around for several years now…with mixed results. Healthcare access for as many people as possible is a good thing. Access at low pricing is also good…especially when a single Mom working at a minimum wage job is trying to get help for her 3 year old with whooping cough.  The problem, as I see it, is that as the big physician groups get bigger…and the retail convenience stores add hundreds of healthcare locations to their stores…the separation between healthcare for the poor and healthcare for the well-off will continue to grow.  While hospitals add multi-million dollar renovations and satellite buildings to their holdings…the average worker may be forced to step to aisle 9…Express Service…2 Symptoms or Less!

Mike

Fall Prevention Clinics of America

1220 Hobson Road   Suite 132   Naperville IL 60540

http://www.FallPreventionClinics.com