At least the Doc is trying to something about skyrocketing insurance premiums.
One Massachusetts doctor will be taking cash, Visa or MasterCard, but no insurance cards. Brookline gynecologist Dr. Alan Altman says beginning July 1st, he will no longer do business with any insurance company. Altman, who's been practicing medicine for 28 years, has put up a price list in his office for his various services. He says insurance companies are hurting the health care system by creating hours of paperwork for doctors and paying them less than what their services are worth. Altman told the "Boston Globe," "I don't want to be a prisoner of the system anymore."
It's just a shame that the medical profession has become so beleagured that it has to come to this for doctors.
I'm looking for a Dr. in the Denver Colorado area that will treat patients without dealing with insurance, as Dr. Altman does. I have no medical insurance and I'm tired of paying enourmous office fees to support the insurance companies that the doctors have to deal with. I'm a retired RN and I know what doctors have to deal with, but I feel I'm getting the short end of the stick here.
Posted by: Joanne Gonsalves | March 17, 2004 at 12:46 PM
If every doctor put up a price list of the most common procedures and was willing to bid on others, insurance would be a secondary method of payment.
When you walk into a doctors office you have no idea what it will cost unless you have insurance which caps the payments to the doctors.
Right not the system is such that the insurance companies compete for you business. It doesn't have to be that way.
rjk
Posted by: kestrel | February 01, 2004 at 09:20 PM