They said they are not accepting new patients.
"Secret survey to gauge doctor access; Government plan will have callers posing as patients" by Robert Pear, New York Times / June 27, 2011
WASHINGTON — Alarmed by a shortage of primary care doctors, Obama administration officials are recruiting a team of “mystery shoppers’’ to pose as patients, call doctors’ offices, and request appointments to see how difficult it is for people to get care when they need it.
The administration says the survey will address a “critical public policy problem’’: the increasing shortage of primary care doctors, including specialists in internal medicine and family practice.
See: The Doctor Is Out
It will also try to discover whether doctors are accepting patients with private insurance while turning away those in government health programs that pay lower reimbursement rates....
Why didn't you just give us s***ty single-payer rather than wasting money this way?
The government is eager to know whether doctors’ offices give different answers to callers depending on whether they have public insurance, like Medicaid, or private insurance, like Blue Cross and Blue Shield.
The calls are to begin in a few months, with preliminary results from the survey expected next spring. Each office will be called at least twice — by a person who supposedly has private insurance and by someone who supposedly has public insurance.
Plans for the survey have riled many doctors because the secret shoppers will not identify themselves as working for the government.
“I don’t like the idea of the government snooping,’’ said Dr. Raymond Scalettar, an internist in Washington. “It’s a pernicious practice — Big Brother tactics, which should be opposed.’’
I agree there -- on all issues, not just health care.
Dr. Robert L. Hogue, a family physician in Brownwood, Texas, asked: “Is this a good use of tax money? Probably not. Everybody with a brain knows we do not have enough doctors.’’
In response to the drumbeat of criticism, a federal health official said doctors did not need to worry because the data would be kept confidential....
Oh, I'm sure that makes all the difference to the docs.
Administration officials said the survey would yield an enormous benefit to the government while imposing an extremely limited burden on doctors.
The new health care law includes several provisions intended to increase the supply of primary care doctors, and officials want to be able to evaluate the effectiveness of those policies.
Federal officials said the initial survey would cost $347,370. Hogue said the money could be better spent on the training or reimbursement of primary care doctors.
Yup.
Most doctors accept Medicare patients, who are 65 and older or disabled.
Related: Defending Medicare
But in many parts of the country, Medicaid, the program for low-income people, pays so little that some doctors refuse to accept Medicaid patients. This could become a more serious problem in 2014, when the new health law will greatly expand eligibility for Medicaid....
Access to care has been a concern in Massachusetts, which provides coverage under a state program cited by many in Congress as a model for President Obama’s health care overhaul.
In a recent study, the Massachusetts Medical Society found that 53 percent of family physicians and 51 percent of internal medicine physicians were not accepting new patients. When new patients could get appointments, they faced long waits, averaging 36 days to see family doctors and 48 days for internists....
Yet the agenda-pushing Globe says we love it.
--more--"
Related: Relaxing on the Web
Some on your dime, taxpayers?
I$ that good for your health?
