Several of my current patients called my office this week on receipt of information assigning them to a new physician (not me). They are insured via a medicaid managed care product such as Care Source, but two other companies won the Miami Valley area bid to provide medicaid managed care. We are not a "participating provider" in either of the new plans, so our patients will be assigned by a computer to another doctor. We'll lose 50-75 patients in this part of the healthcare transformation. We have meaningful, ongoing relationships with our patients and these losses hurt on the personal side, too.
We'll have to replace those patients, many of whom I've cared for for 6- 15 years, with direct pay patients, who will not have interference by insurance companies or government intervention. The business survival of thousands of independent Family Physicians is touch and go for the next couple years. This is a very rough time in health care for patients, too, as they lose insurance and get a different plan with a $3000- $5000 deductible that they can't afford. Many can't pay their doctor bills with the higher deductible and eventually lose their physician again. Duck.
More later.
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