Thread: Thousands of Doctors Dropped by Insurer After Obamacare Funding Cuts

Thousands of Doctors Dropped by Insurer After Obamacare Funding Cuts

Saturday, 16 Nov 2013 10:39 AM
By Newsmax Wires

UnitedHealth Group has dropped thousands of doctors from its networks in recent weeks, leaving many elderly patients unsure whether they need to switch plans to continue seeing their doctors, the Wall Street Journal reported Saturday.

The insurer said in October that underfunding of Medicare Advantage plans for the elderly could not be fully offset by the company's other healthcare business.

The company also reported spending more healthcare premiums on medical claims in the third quarter, due mainly to government cuts to payments for Medicare Advantage services.

"Medicare Advantage, an alternative to traditional Medicare, combines hospital and doctor coverage and often includes prescription drugs and perks like gym memberships," the Journal explained. "Enrollment has more than doubled since 2004 to 13 million in 2012, which represents about 27 percent of Americans on Medicare.

"The federal government pays private insurers a per-capita fee to manage the benefits. The rate is currently about 12 percent more than the average Medicare patient spends annually. The Obama administration plans to cut those extra payments to insurers by about $150 billion over the next 10 years to help pay" for the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare.

Some experts told the Journal that they expect enrollment in Medicare Advantage plans to decline sharply if that occurs.

The Journal report said that doctors in at least 10 states were notified of being laid off the plans, some citing "significant changes and pressures in the healthcare environment." According to the notices, the terminations can be appealed within 30 days.

Tyler Mason, a UnitedHealth spokesperson, was not immediately available for comment when reached by Reuters.

At least two state medical societies are seeking temporary restraining orders against UnitedHealth and other state attorney generals are investigating the firm.

Attorneys in Connecticut, acting on behalf of the Hartford and Fairfield County Medical Associations, filed suit Friday after UnitedHealth dropped doctors serving the popular Medicare program, The Courant reported.

Other states expressed similar anger over the changes. In Rhode Island, the state's attorney general and health department director on Friday sent letters to UnitedHealth's New England CEO, asking him to reinstate doctors until a full plan for such a transition could be put in place, Rhode Island Public Radio reported.

Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Kilmartin and Health Department director Michael Fine told United Health that they are concerned the continuity of care will be lost in the shakeup. They also noted that UnitedHealth has not notified customers of the changes, leaving that up to doctors.

But the insurer told the WSJ that its provider networks were always changing and that it expected its Medicare Advantage network to be 85 percent to 90 percent of its current size by the end of 2014.

UnitedHealth is participating in about a dozen new state insurance markets that launched on October 1 to offer subsidized health coverage under Obamacare. The insurer had said previously it planned to withdraw from some markets in 2014 because of the government funding cuts.

Another top health insurer, Aetna Inc , also warned in October that it expected slowing growth in 2014 in its Medicare Advantage plans.

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Keep Your Doctor Promise Shredded as Thousands Dropped from Major Insurance Network




Kyle Becker
On November 17, 2013
http://kylenbecker.com

Not sure if this will prompt another awkward press conference from President Obama, followed by a non-apology apology, a royal [ahem] decree and the waving of the Wand of Hopenchange, but it’s certainly not good.

United Health is dropping doctors by the boatload, forcing elderly patients to scramble to find new health insurance.

Wow, that’s some ethical legislation you’ve got there, Democrats. WSJ reports:

UnitedHealth Group Inc., the nation’s largest provider of privately managed Medicare Advantage plans, has dropped thousands of doctors from its networks in recent weeks—spurring protest from lawmakers and physician groups and leaving many elderly patients unsure about whether they need to switch plans to keep seeing their doctors. Doctors in at least 10 states have received termination letters, some citing “significant changes and pressures in the health-care environment.”
The notices also tell doctors they can appeal within 30 days. That means many physicians and patients won’t know for sure who is in or out of UnitedHealth’s Medicare Advantage networks before the open-enrollment period to switch Medicare plans ends on Dec. 7.

UnitedHealth cited “expected cuts in Medicare payments tied to the Affordable Care Act” as the reason for the decision to scale back its doctor network.

Although health insurance companies average around 3% yearly profit, the president wants people to blame insurance companies for even being in business; so that people will want to abandon the private system in preference for coercion-based “single-payer” – a euphemism for socialized medicine. Once that is achieved, Americans would become the servants of the state, dependent on it for their health and even for life and death decisions.

The same people who lied to the American people’s faces to pass this law also want to run every aspect of your lives, including the most personal aspects – like your health. After all, that’s where you get the most leverage over people, right?

ObamaCare is ultimately not about care, and it’s not about health. It’s about coercion – turning private insurance companies into the de facto property of the state; forcing people to provide services and for people to buy them.

It is absolutely predictable that the law leads to skyrocketing premiums, cancelled plans, and dropped doctors — all negative consequences that the Obama regime will blame on the so-called “market.” Contrary to overly generous concessions to presumably clueless Democrat politicians, they are able to grasp basic economics and cause-and-effect.

That ObamaCare would be a disaster is about as unpredictable as a sunrise.

United Health expects its doctor network to be 85% to 90% of the current size by the end of 2014. Just wait until thousands of doctors retire rather than have to put up with anymore of this nonsense.


http://www.ijreview.com/2013/11/9536...rance-network/

UnitedHealth dropping doctors by the thousands

By United Press International November 18, 2013 6:50 am

Financial pressures from the U.S. government are pushing UnitedHealth Group to drop thousands of doctors, the firm's president said.
"That's what's driving our actions. It's no secret that we are under substantial funding pressure from the federal government," said President Austin Pittman.
The Wall Street Journal reported Saturday that UnitedHealth earned profits of $1.57 billion in the third quarter, although the company's Chief Executive Officer Stephen Hemsley has warned that the Affordable Care Act is expected to include cuts to Medicare Payments.
UnitedHealth is the country's largest private management firm for Medicare Advantage plans, which covers both hospital and doctor expenses and includes options for prescription drug bills and preventative care, like membership to a gym, the Journal said.
UnitedHealth said it is managing its business and that it has 350,000 doctors in its network.
But cutting doctors from the plan still represents a potential crisis for patients. "Fewer practitioners mean longer waits, longer drives, less convenience," said ophthalmologist Steven Thornquist of Trumbull, Conn.
"Patients battling cancer should be focused on their treatment, not on finding another doctor," said gynecological oncologist Johnathan Lancaster at the cancer center Moffitt, where 200 doctors were dropped from the plan.
The Connecticut State Medical Society estimated 2,200 doctors were cut in Connecticut alone.
"Instead of using a scalpel, United is using a chain saw," said the president of the society Michael Saffir, who is also a rehabilitation specialist.
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http://www.gopusa.com/news/2013/11/1...the-thousands/

Access Shock: Thousands of Doctors Being Dropped from Health Plans

Guy Benson | Nov 18, 2013




The Obamacare fiasco is "going to get worse," opines Bob Woodward, because there are so many moving parts that remain out of joint. One of those pieces is the president's "keep your doctor" pledge, which many Americans will discover to be as inaccurate as "keep your plan" over the next year. Mainstream media sources and conservative analysts have warned of the impending problem of so-called "access shock," wherein consumers' choices on plans, doctors, and treatment facilities will be dramatically reduced in an effort to hold down costs. Expect to see more of these stories dripping into news coverage as the trend worsens:

UnitedHealth Group dropped thousands of doctors from its networks in recent weeks, leaving many elderly patients unsure whether they need to switch plans to continue seeing their doctors, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday. The insurer said in October that underfunding of Medicare Advantage plans for the elderly could not be fully offset by the company's other healthcare business. The company also reported spending more healthcare premiums on medical claims in the third quarter, due mainly to government cuts to payments for Medicare Advantage services. The Journal report said that doctors in at least 10 states were notified of being laid off the plans, some citing "significant changes and pressures in the healthcare environment." According to the notices, the terminations can be appealed within 30 days.

Meanwhile, the Obama administration is rewriting their metrics for Healthcare.gov. They've decided that if four out of five users are able to use the site properly, that outcome will constitute a "success." The Washington Post:

The goal for how many people should be able to make it through the insurance exchange is an internal target that administration officials have not made public. It acknowledges that as many as one in five Americans who try to use the Web site to buy insurance will be unable to do so. The measure is the first concrete performance standard in the 3¹/₂ years since the government began to design the health exchange, and was defined by a group of federal officials and technical experts in late October. It is now guiding the work of hundreds of government employees and contractors racing to try to repair the balky Web site by the administration’s Nov. 30 deadline. Whether the government meets the benchmark — and whether the public regards it as adequate — will be a central factor in President Obama’s efforts to increase support for the controversial health-care law and lure customers to the federal insurance marketplace.

The process of "luring" customers into the federal exchanges isn't exactly cut-and-dried either. The law's viability rests on the correct mix of young and old, healthy and sick signing up. So far, among the tiny sliver of Americans who've managed to select a plan, early patterns are worrisome. The Wall Street Journal reported on the troubling demographics several weeks ago, and now the Associated Press confirms the trend:

Fears that insurance exchanges that are the linchpin of President Barack Obama's federal health care overhaul wouldn't attract the young, healthy people needed to make them financially viable are being heightened by the early results of signups in several states. If it becomes a trend, that could lead to increases in insurance premiums and deductibles next year. Along with the paltry enrollment numbers released this week, officials in a handful of states said those who had managed to sign up were generally older people with medical problems — those with the greatest incentives to get coverage...Insurers have warned that they need a wide range of people signing up for coverage because premiums paid by adults in the younger and healthier group, between 18 and 35, are needed to offset the cost of carrying older and sicker customers who typically generate far more in medical bills than they contribute in premiums.

Perhaps young people will rush to sign up at the very last minute. Or perhaps not. Weeks of horrible press over missed deadlines, broken websites, and data security breaches probably won't help lubricate the wooing process. And if the requisite blend doesn't materialize, insurers' losses will result in some combination of three effects: (1) Pulling out of the Obamacare exchange markets -- adding to the access shock problem -- (2) jacking up premiums substantially ahead of 2015 -- risking a death spiral affect -- or (3) counting on major federal bailouts, at great cost to current and future taxpayers. Sen. Marco Rubio's bill seeks to curtail expensive healthcare bailouts, as the administration moves to expand its authority to distribute such funds. This swirling uncertainty is disconcerting to the insurance industry and average consumers alike. Democrats continue to grapple with the political ramifications of this mess -- some venting exasperation at the White House's incompetence, with others shifting their attention to saving their own skins. Click through and read the quote about the political death spiral at which some vulnerable Democrats are staring, as the party faithful fret and commiserate. I'll leave you with Nancy Pelosi's painful Meet the Press appearance yesterday morning:



This law is affordable, she claims, in spite of the data-driven evidence on ">average premium increases and exorbitant deductible hikes. And the state exchanges are working great, she adds -- failing to mention Democrat-run jurisdictions such as Oregon, Vermont, Maryland and Hawaii. One of the examples she places in the "win" column is Covered California, which signed up approximately 35,000 residents in October. By comparison, more than one million Californians have lost their current coverage since the implementation process began. Success! Democratic officials who may be inclined to acknowledge any of these flaws -- or to question Obama's so-called "fix" -- might want to reconsider. Question The One, and you may find yourself out of a job.


http://townhall.com/tipsheet/guybens...campaign=nl_pm