I am a nurse, my husband an orthopedic surgeon. My husband has gone to school for 18 years of college to learn how to be an orthopedic surgeon. He and his 11 partners own a successful and busy practice. He works very, very long hours, leaves at 6am and usually gets home at 10pm or later M-F. On the weekends he is not on call, he is in his home office doing paper work. Weekends he is on call for a level one trauma hospital, he takes call Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Many times he is so busy, he is not able to come home. This is after a full schedule of working his normal hours during the week. He is not paid to be on call directly, the money goes to pay his over head at his office. He is on call every third weekend, every third wednesday and every other Tuesday.
This year the federal govt passed a law that his group had to have electronic medical records (EMR). This cost his group 3million dollars. The federal govt. did not pay one red cent towards it. The group had to take out a loan. The EMR’s will not boost pay, it was a very expensive unnecessary cost. The EMR’s also required extra employees to run it. Now my husband needs a scribe to go into each pt room with him to put all the info of the pt. into the EMR’s. This cost is huge. So not only did we have to pay for the EMR’s but the people to run it. This cost comes out of our personal pay check. I think the feds passed this law to do audits on the doctors and patients to be sure they are following the rules of Obamacare. (please see the video I have attached, it helps explain the hidden costs).
I have heard Obamacare is going to pay the specialists $150,000 per year as a salaried employee of the govt. If this actually goes thru, my husband will loose his practice. For just ONE guy in the group, his over head is OVER 1million per year. The costs of keeping a medical practice is so expensive. Every employee, every thing a person sees as they go to his clinic is paid for by the doctors that own the practice; malpractice insurance, pens, electric bill, exam tables, every employee a pt sees, all down to the carpet and chairs in the office. This does not include the employees a pt does not see. Billers, coders, cleaning crew, administrative people, the list goes on and on. All of the people get paid, have bennies, and they get a cost of living raise EVERY year.
My husband takes a pay cut EVERY year. The charges the insurance companies pay out are set by the federal govt. The insurance companies follow medicare reimbursement rates. They try to cut the rate reimbursements every year. This is why the charges a pt. gets on the bill is much higher than what the doc is actually paid. If the doctor charged exactly what he is reimbursed by the insurance companies, the insurance companies would pay less than half of the charge. The docs get paid by the insurance companies for each individual surgery they perform. The follow up clinic visits are free for 1-3 months depending on the procedure. This is called universal coverage. (but, the doc still has to pay overhead when the person comes in for follow up)
Getting the insurance company to pay is another cat and mouse game. Lets say a surgery charge is 1,000. The doctor will be lucky to get paid 300 from the insurance company. The insurance company tries to not pay every chance they get. If the procedure is not 100% billed how the insurance company wants it, they send it back to the clinic to buy time. If the procedure is not paid with in a certain time frame, the law says the insurance company does not have to pay the doctor. Add this billing style to the docs super busy schedule and all the paper work he has to do already, makes many procedures the doc does is for free. But, the doc still pays for the overhead for that procedure. Lets say the insurance company does pay the $300 for the surgery, 56% of that money that comes in has to go for over head, than what is left is our income. But, one thing the public does not know in the state of MN every dollar my husband bills out we are forced to pay a 2% provider care tax to the state to cover people that do not have insurance. Add that onto a 39.9% federal income tax, 10% state tax, 2% provider care tax, 7.85% social security tax, 1% Obamacare tax. This is what comes out of our personal pay check. Add that onto his over head. So, people wonder why health care is so expensive? There are a ton of expenses that go into running a medical practice. Employees, mal practice insurance, over head, student loan payments, and HUGE govt. taxes. (we also pay employer taxes and corporate taxes) Not only do the docs have to be paid so do the insurance companies, they too have huge overhead. It is very expensive to run a business because of all the govt regs and taxes.
I am not sticking up for the insurance companies, just want to share how much everyone pays to keep a medical practice open. This does not even get into the surgical center expenses or hosp. expenses. So, what will happen when the doctors pay is cut by Obamacare? My opinion, they will go out of business. Cannot pay over 1million in overhead on a 150,000 pay check. Or become federal employees. Do you really want your doctor to be a federal employee? What happens when you are five minutes beyond closing time at the DMV or the post office? Federal employees do not work ONE minute over their required time. They have holidays and weekends off. Where are the federal employees on holidays and weekends? My opinion, many of the doctors are going to be run out of business or quit. My husband busts his ass and works very hard. He will not work for free, and should not be expected to. I am attaching a video that everyone must watch. It is from a fellow orthopedic surgeon. His views on Obamacare.
Another example of not wanting the feds controlling your healthcare is look at how the feds have shut things down over the past week or so. They shut down the National institutes of Health study with children and the cancer they had. The children are not getting the necessary cancer drugs they need. This issue did not make the 6pm news so not many know about it. do your really want the feds controlling your healthcare? what happens with the next shut down when obama care controls every aspect of your health care? Many people will not do anything about it until they are personally affected. Remember people, nothing in life is free. Healthcare is not free. If a person does not have to pay a dime for their health care, someone else is paying for it. After awhile, the govt. will run out of someone else’s money and come after yours. I urge everyone to get involved, call your politicians, before it is too late.
Premium Before Obamacare:
Premium After Obamacare: