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Who's Your Doctor's Daddy?
Patients in the United States have known for a long time that they are not the decision makers in matters related to their personal health and well-being. Just as for-profit corporate interests control elections, candidates, public officials, policies and enforcement, for-profit health insurance companies control healthcare delivery. So when a recent report came out about insurance companies buying up physician groups and providers in increasing numbers, I wasn’t very surprised.
Left to the for-profit financial services corporations known as health insurance companies, more firmly entrenched market-based healthcare delivery will thrive on doctors doing exactly what shareholders need them to do as direct employees.
See the report here.
A colleague pointed out to me that this really isn’t too much of a news flash, and that doctors have been working for their keep from the for-profit insurance companies for some time. I suppose it’s just shocking to my sensibilities to now need to ask directly of my doctors and other providers, “Who owns this practice or facility? CIGNA? United Health Care?” Knowing who is signing the paychecks is critical to knowing whose interests are being protected and enhanced.
But drill deeper into this business strategy. From the article: “The model poses a natural threat to providers, particularly hospitals. OptumHealth, UnitedHealth's subsidiary, has said its physician networks serve all players in a health system, including rival health plans with policyholders who use the same physicians… Primary care physicians are already in high-demand, and by acquiring them in certain markets, insurers could potentially wrest control of entire health systems by influencing referrals - whether that is an explicit intention or not.”
Exactly how will a Blue Cross covered patient fare at a Humana owned clinic or doctors’ group? Will one insurance giant negotiate with another for contracted services offered by the others’ doctors? It all seems a tad incestuous to me somehow.
So, there we go. All the fears expressed about government takeover of healthcare if we moved to a progressively financed, single standard of high quality care for all – an improved and enhanced Medicare for all system – can now be released in favor of the takeover actually occurring.
Health insurance giants only make money if high enough premiums come in from enough people, if medical losses/claims payments are kept at a minimum, if investments are offering a strong return and regulatory interference and interruptions of all of these are limited. It’s about the money. It’s about the profit. It is not about the patients. It is not about the policy holders.
So the next time you get ready to sign those forms at the front desk of your doctor’s office or the admissions cubicle at the hospital or clinic – you know, the acceptance of financial responsibility and risk and the assignment of benefits forms that relinquish most of your legal protections – make sure to ask for full disclosure of who is calling the shots for the practice or provider.
Call it your own “Who’s My Doctor’s Daddy?” form. It is critical to your health and mine that they all know that we know what is going on here. And until we can make this awful system accountable to patient needs and not greed, we’d better beware.
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15 Comments so far
Show AllThe people of the US have demonstrated, time and again, that they want affordable health care for all.
That directive has been twisted and ignored by the corporate elite who control our govt. They have murdered in the cause of higher profits, and will continue to do so until we reclaim our nation.
The voters in the USA have voted over and over for candidates who do not support Single Payer. It is the voters fault. Voting has consequences.
If I go in the ice cream store and I have a choice of chocolate or vanilla, what good does it do me to demand Pistachio? If I want Ice Cream, I have to choose between the two flavors offered.
And then you figure out that chocolate is just flavored vanilla...
It's still ice cream.
Thank you, Elaine. I was about to make an analogy between these health plans and the ILLUSION of choice, and its parallel with our present-day elections.
I wonder if the libertarian "types" in this forum, who, in spite of abundant evidence relating to the power of media control and propagandized elections, still blame voters for "their choices," and also feel the same way... which is to say, blame consumers for the outcomes wrought upon them by the insurance companies?
One favored meme of capitalism is "good management." We now "enjoy" allegedly managed care and managed elections, and it's become abundantly clear that the more "management," the less chance of actual individual sovereignty. Choices are made for us... in just about every arena of our lives. Our food isn't even properly labeled! Women's reproductive "choices" are being narrowed by the minute.
I suppose the rubber band must stretch to the breaking point, before the "control state" will snap apart. We can't be much further from that inevitable outcome.
On my ballot there were 8 candidates for President, plus a write-in option. That is like going into an ice cream store that has an infinite number of flavors.
It is the lack of critical thinking and laziness on the part of voters that got us where we are. Unless someone with a gun accompanies you into the voting booth, you can vote for anyone, but then it follows that you must accept responsibility for your vote. Blaming the 'other guy' is no longer an option. The dog ate my homework excuse is no longer an option either. Voting has consequences.
I apologize if I sound harsh, but US voters are causing thousands around the world to die. All of those who vote dem/repub are complicit in those deaths.
How is it the voters fault that they have a choice between two right wing parties? Call me a softy, but I don't like damning people just because their leaders are horses arses.
Walk away from the medical monopoly. The writing on the wall is clear. Doctors and medical care are commodities, not services, and are not allowed independent judgment.
Find practitioners who practice root cause medicine or go down with the ship.
Cassandra: I agree, except for one thing... don't forget there is now a punitive legal mandate in place intent upon forcing us to purchase the lousy insurance scam plans. The new exposures about the agendas propagated at ALEC make painfully clear exactly what the "Health Reform" (some Democratic apologists STILL use as a supposed benefit of Obama's presidency) is really about.
Ah yes, the Dem apologists who can't/won't see; just like the Rep apologists who also can't/won't see. They will be devoured the same as those of us who do and didn't need an ALEC expose to tell us how we're being destroyed.
Anyway, we still have to turn to naturopaths, alternative MD's, chiropractors etc, etc We also have to learn all we can about self care and fight the efforts to control supplements at every turn. See www.anh-usa.org; get the weekly e-mail and scream.
Too many here worship science and believe that it's the "quacks" who are evil. Here's what the "quacks" said in the 70's: Don't use margarine; avoid oils except olive oil, extra virgin being the best; processed grains are deadly as in "the whiter the bread, the sooner you're dead", eat a rainbow of vegetables; vitamin C can cure cancer and acute viral illnesses; our soils are being depleted and we need supplements, especially trace minerals; don't take ant-acids fix your digestion; eggs won't hurt you; and much, much more. Almost everything said then was true and the gov't shills were wrong. The same is true today.
Sorry, I know you know this but it bears repeating for those who sneer.
The insurance scams are with us and so be it. I've just been "forced" into Medicare. I will still seek care I know is useful and continue to eat a plant based whole foods diet (and yes, I'm not perfect) which has helped me to avoid the monopoly for over 30 years. People have to do this themselves and not worry about the sheeple who whine that healthy eating doesn't taste good. They will get sick and be drugged to death. Again, so be it.
More on your point. Perhaps the alternative med people will have to get together and offer their own "insurance plan". For several years now, I've believed that basic care Medicaid benefits be provided via a medical savings account, allowing Medicaid recipients to choose any physician or other medical care provider who had a State license--they might even be able to get their teeth fixed. Perhaps we will need 501-C-3 organizations who will provide funds for people who can't afford their own care. All I know is that those who can afford to do so should immediately start seeking alternative practitioners among naturopaths or alt. MDs. The anti-bussing protestors in the 60's carried signs "Stand Up and Be Counted or Lie Down and Be Mounted" I sneered then, I don't anymore.
Finally, I know you hate this, but there is one candidate for President who would agree with me on this. I'm sure he'll meet an unkind fate should he win or look like he will but it is still my firm belief that voting for him in the primaries is either our only hope or at least the way to go down fighting (metaphorically--those who want to fight for real will have my blessings and any sandwiches I can make to speed them on their way).
"Almost everything said then was true and the gov't shills were wrong. The same is true today."
Cassandra,
I just found out last night that Max Gerson was poisoned twice with arsenic. Don't know where it came from. On the other hand, the Gerson Institute was becoming well known for curing many types of cancers. Who would want such a man snuffed out?
Perhaps things have changed lately, but at one time, doctors in Indiana could not work for others. For example, the Optometrist in a WalMart was an independent contractor, not a WalMart employee.
But then, doctors joined "practices," because an individual could not negotiate effectively with an insurance company. I assumed that they were all partners in the practice, not employees, as were the nurses and clerks.
Recently, some practices have "become affiliated" with hospitals. The notice I received from my Cardiologist's practice did not indicate if the "partners" in the practice retained any semblence of ownership.
The major hospitals in Indiana are busy buying smaller hospitals, to keep competitors from snapping them up. I suspect that the larger the hospital system, the more leverage it has with Anthem, et al., when negotiating charges.
It is not clear if the doctors in the practices the hospitals are buying retain any semblence of ownership. If not, the law in Indiana must have changed.
Now that insurance companies are buying practices, I can imagine a clerk with an Associate degree in medical record keeping calling a doctor to say that a particular treatment is too expensive - that the doctor will have to switch to another.
Even Orwell couldn't have imagined this situation.
Donna and/or CD readers,
The link to the report didn't work, I got a 404 file error. Know how I can get to it? Thanks.
OOPS -- between Michael Moore's site and this one, I think we broke that link. Here's another one to the same basic story: http://www.washingtonpost.com/insurers-quietly-gaining-control-of-doctors-covered-by-companies-plans/2011/06/29/AG5DNftH_story.html