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mises
Joined: 05 Nov 2007
Location: retired
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 Posted: Sat Mar 21, 2009 4:57 pm Post subject: Bureaucrats Force Low-Cost Doc to Raise Fees |
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http://www.vosizneias.com/28392/2009/03/04/new-york-ny-doctor-trying-to-help-uninsured-patients-with-annual-low-fee-is-being-fought-by-state-bureaucrats
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New York, NY - The state is trying to shut down a New York City doctor's ambitious plan to treat uninsured patients for around $1,000 a year.
Dr. John Muney offers his patients everything from mammograms to mole removal at his AMG Medical Group clinics, which operate in all five boroughs.
"I'm trying to help uninsured people here," he said.
His patients agree to pay $79 a month for a year in return for unlimited office visits with a $10 co-pay.
But his plan landed him in the crosshairs of the state Insurance Department, which ordered him to drop his fixed-rate plan - which it claims is equivalent to an insurance policy.
Muney insists it is not insurance because it doesn't cover anything that he can't do in his offices, like complicated surgery. He points out his offices do not operate 24/7 so they can't function like emergency rooms.
"I'm not doing an insurance business," he said. "I'm just providing my services at my place during certain hours."
He says he can afford to charge such a small amount because he doesn't have to process mountains of paperwork and spend hours on billing.
"If they leave me alone, I can serve thousands of patients," he said.
The state believes his plan runs afoul of the law because it promises to cover unplanned procedures - like treating a sudden ear infection - under a fixed rate. That's something only a licensed insurance company can do.
"The law is strict on how insurance is defined," said an Insurance Department spokesman.
A possible solution that Muney's lawyer crafted would force patients to pay more than $10 for unplanned procedures.
They are waiting to see if the state will accept the compromise. Still, Muney is unhappy because, he said, "I really don't want to charge more. They're forcing me."
One of his patients, Matthew Robinson, 52, was furious to learn the state was interfering with the plan.
"The whole point is, he [Muney] found a way of paying his rent, paying his workers, and getting to see patients for the price," said Robinson.
"How can the state dictate you've got to charge more?" |
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,508990,00.html
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Insurance Industry Wins, Low-Cost Doctor Raises Fees
A New York City doctor whose low-cost health care plan angered state officials has agreed to increase his fees.
The state Insurance Department told Dr. John Muney last month to end the $79-a-month medical service at his AMG Medical Group clinics in all five boroughs. Department spokesman Andy Mais says Muney was violating state law by basically operating as an insurance operator without a license.
The monthly fee buys unlimited office visits, including certain tests and in-office surgeries.
Muney will charge $33 per visit for all but preventive care, which Mais says brings him in compliance. Muney's spokesman says he'll challenge the restrictions through legislation.
Muney, a former surgeon, started offering the $79-a-month plan in 2008.
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Does this make any sense? |
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TexasPete
Joined: 24 May 2006
Location: Koreatown
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| Posted: Sat Mar 21, 2009 6:42 pm Post subject: |
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| Well it certainly does not appear to serve the public interest and is a good example of how government can be the problem when special interests and lobbyists exert undue influence on the legislature. |
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mises
Joined: 05 Nov 2007
Location: retired
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| Posted: Sat Mar 21, 2009 7:21 pm Post subject: |
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A grand a year really IS affordable health care. Even for a family of 4 with the median income (45k, give or take) that would be a manageable amount.
The "American capitalist health care system" doesn't exist. It is corporatist and dominated by large groups with their hands in the public pot. At 16% of GDP, that's about as bad as Wall Street. |
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TexasPete
Joined: 24 May 2006
Location: Koreatown
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| Posted: Sat Mar 21, 2009 8:02 pm Post subject: |
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| Bill Maher said something interesting about the argument against national health care and the talking point that you and your doctor should be the ones making the decisions, not the government. He basically said that even if you have private insurance, it's not the doctors making the calls--it's the insurance companies that are deciding the treatment you get. Also, as Jay Leno pointed out the other day in his interview with President Obama, it's absurd that a hospital can charge $26,000 to fix a broken arm. It would be funny if it wasn't real and if people weren't going bankrupt over this stuff. |
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mises
Joined: 05 Nov 2007
Location: retired
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| Posted: Sun Mar 22, 2009 6:51 am Post subject: |
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http://skepticaltexascpa.blogspot.com/2009/03/mckinsey-strikes-again.html
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McKinsey Strikes Again
"As I was reporting my brother's story, I discovered something about Pat's former insurance company: last May, insurance regulators in Connecticut imposed a record $2.1 million in penalties on two Assurant subsidiaries for allegedly engaging in a practice called post-claims underwriting--combing through short-term policyholders' medical records to find pretexts to deny their claims or rescind their polcies. ... Assurant agreed to pay the fine but admitted no wrongdoing. ... It took Pat and me less than 10 minutes to fill out the complaint form over the internet. ... On Feb. 9, we had an answer: Assurant maintained that it had done nothing wrong and that Pat should never have relied on short-term coverage over a long period. ... Those extraordinary circumstances included the fact that the state insurance department was sniffing around", Karen Tumulty/San Antonio at Time, 16 March 2009.
Why do I put McKinsey, the "very prestigious" consulting firm, in this post's title? Because in about 1995 McKinsey did a study for Allstate, the "good hands" people, telling it how to avoid paying insurance claims. Supposedly, Allstate saved $700 million over a few years by following McKinsey's suggestions. What's the problem? An insurance company has a fiduciary duty to its' insureds! No one got indicted for this. Look at the possibilities: insurance fraud, a state crime, or wire and mail fraud, federal crimes. These studies will end when it does not pay to do them. Which will be? When an insurance claimant with cancer and six months to live goes to Allstate's president's office 357 magnum in hand and empties all six chambers into the guy. Or the McKinsey partner. Will McKinsey take another "Allstate" study then? Who would staff it thinking claimants with nothing to lose will come gunning for them? Literally! The Chairman, Mao Zedong, said, "Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun". Never forget it. Like Big 87654 firms, there is little if anything a large law, CPA or consulting firm won't say for a fee. Sad, but true. |
The insurance companies are the primary problem in American health care. |
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T-J
Joined: 10 Oct 2008
Location: Seoul EunpyungGu Yeonsinnae
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| Posted: Sun Mar 22, 2009 7:30 am Post subject: |
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Banks, insurance, taxes, politics.
Meh.
For lack of a reasoned response, America truly needs an enema. |
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yawarakaijin
Joined: 08 Aug 2006
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| Posted: Sun Mar 22, 2009 3:20 pm Post subject: |
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Does it really cost 26,000 to fix a broken arm in the US. You hear numbers thrown around like that all the time but I wonder if the figure is legitimate.
If it is, isn't it absolutely insane? How do a group of people get together and work out a system by which a procedure that should cost maybe 400$ ends up costing $26,000.
Isn't this price gouging? If I and my other buddies at the bottled water companies, along with a few friends in the governmet, came up with a system that inflated the cost of bottled water to $1000 per bottle and forced everyone to get insurance in order to obtain such water, how would that go over with Joe Q. Public? |
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