A primary care doctor dedicates his practice to treating the poor and realizes it can’t be done despite his best efforts:

He is leaving because he can’t deal with the constant financial hardship, of fighting with insurance companies, figuring out how to make the cash go further when the payers are late, and how to break even. He takes medicare and medicaid, because in his neck of the woods, they are some of the best payers. He is leaving because he can’t keep up with the endless fighting over claims, and can’t afford to hire someone to do it for him. He is leaving because he can’t afford to hire someone else to beg insurance companies for pre-authorizations. He can’t afford the mandated EMR, can’t afford the “team” approach required for the patient centered home, and he fears he will go bankrupt trying to follow other of the latest government mandates. He can’t keep up with ICD-10.

Some readers of this blog wonder why physicians continue to put up with the abuse and accept the terms that Medicaid and Medicare dictate.

Maybe someone’s listening because more doctors are either going cash-only or packing up and leaving primary care.

Those doctors will be fine wherever they end up. The patients however, won’t be so fortunate.

topics: medicare, medicaid