Letter to the Editor
Chicago Tribune
August 12, 2010
This is in response to the recent opinion piece in the Chicago Tribune “Patients will end up receiving less care” (Commentary, Aug. 5), by Cory Franklin, a physician with NorthShore University HealthSystem.
Franklin’s opinion piece repeats many mistaken ideas about Medicare and about single-payer health systems.
But I would like in particular to address his statements about physician satisfaction.
Private insurance companies may, on paper, pay physicians substantially more than Medicare, but this must be taken in the context that Medicare actually pays the rates it publishes and pays on time, while private insurance companies subject physicians to a maze of voluntary and involuntary discounts, denials, delays and underpayments that make calculation of what physicians actually get impossible.
Under an improved Medicare for all, not only would physicians be paid reliably, but they would reduce their administrative overhead by one-half due to greatly simplified billing, while at the same time having no more pre-authorizations and pre-approvals to deal with, and no uncollectable bills.
Thus the day Medicare for all is implemented, physicians will get a raise, even without any change in Medicare payment.
Furthermore physicians will be able to unite to negotiate fair reimbursement, rather than being at the mercy of multiple payers, each promising to deliver patients in return for discounted payments.
Anne Scheetz, M.D., Chicago