Why? It is frustrating how it seems like so many doctors refuse to take insurance or Medicare
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Too much paperwork. It requires skilled office staff.
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Too much paperwork. Too many “mistake” denials. Too little reimbursement for services. Too much delay in payment.
All of this requires extra office staff to handle, which costs a lot of money. Meanwhile, reimbursements have been shrinking over the past year.
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I’m not sure what you mean because chronic care for Medicare patients is the core of family medicine, which is where I work. Did you mean Medicaid? Medicaid is based on income. The payouts are very low, and most physicians either limit how many Medicaid patients they see or don’t accept them at all.
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An increasing number of doctors are choosing to not accept Medicare due to the low reimbursement rates.
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Many practices are reducing the number of insurance networks they’re in or dropping insurance altogether due to low reimbursement rates. The delays in getting EOBs processed and the difficulty of collecting payments from patients make it hardly worth the effort.
For example, one insurance we used to work with priced a 99214 visit at around $78, and often didn’t pay anything, leaving us to collect from the patient. About 50% of patients pay their statements within 30 days, but the rest take 90 days or more, requiring multiple statements and follow-up calls.