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by rprasad
5604 days ago
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Funny. I have plenty of family and friends in the medical field (doctors, nurses, and hospital administrators), and I have yet to find one who believes the health care bill is a bad idea. In fact, most of them agree that its long overdue. You know what they love most about the bill? It would prevent insurers from dropping coverage. Insurer-instigated billing disputes are the biggest obstacles to health service provider getting paid. Also, allowing insurance companies to sell across state lines without adhering to the laws of the states in which they are selling coverage violates states rights to control insurance coverage within the state. Insurers can already sell across state lines; the only impediment is that they adhere to the laws of each state. |
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That said, one family member in particular is a nurse practicioner at a major trauma center. Her primary concern is not the billing disputes as much as the actual quality of care. She feels that her hospital is already inundated with somewhat reckless medicaid requests. She believes that 60% of medicaid patients at her hospital seek medical care that they don't need (e.g., person has a basic headache that some rest or an aspirin would surely cure but instead they actually seek professional medical attention). If that visit were to come at a slightly greater cost, there is no way that person would go to an emergency room for a headache.
It sounds like a dramatic example but she says crazy incidents like this happens every single day, w/o fail. So much so that they track and keep a monthly log that helps them measure their performance. As such, the hospital's resources are strained and their ability to treat seriously ill or injured patients is somewhat compromised. So I think the concern on her part is that the new health care bill actually exacerbates this problem.
I understand that selling across state lines could violate states rights. At the same time, it's too bad that many (myself included) wouldn't trust the fed to be in charge of interstate oversight. In reality, it might be better to have one consolidated standard of mandates but I just can't imagine fed efficiently and accurately providing that type of oversight.