REAL WORLD EVENT DISCUSSIONS

Thousands of Medicare Advantage Doctors Dropped by Insurer Due To Obamacare Law

POSTED BY: JONGSSTRAW
UPDATED: Monday, November 18, 2013 09:10
SHORT URL:
VIEWED: 2709
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Saturday, November 16, 2013 10:15 PM

JONGSSTRAW


Quote:

UnitedHealth Group has dropped thousands of doctors from its networks in recent weeks, leaving many elderly patients unsure whether they need to switch plans to continue seeing their doctors, the Wall Street Journal reported Saturday.

The insurer said in October that underfunding of Medicare Advantage plans for the elderly could not be fully offset by the company's other healthcare business.

The company also reported spending more healthcare premiums on medical claims in the third quarter, due mainly to government cuts to payments for Medicare Advantage services.

"Medicare Advantage, an alternative to traditional Medicare, combines hospital and doctor coverage and often includes prescription drugs and perks like gym memberships," the Journal explained. "Enrollment has more than doubled since 2004 to 13 million in 2012, which represents about 27 percent of Americans on Medicare.

"The federal government pays private insurers a per-capita fee to manage the benefits. The rate is currently about 12 percent more than the average Medicare patient spends annually. The Obama administration plans to cut those extra payments to insurers by about $150 billion over the next 10 years to help pay" for the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare.

Some experts told the Journal that they expect enrollment in Medicare Advantage plans to decline sharply if that occurs.

The Journal report said that doctors in at least 10 states were notified of being laid off the plans, some citing "significant changes and pressures in the healthcare environment." According to the notices, the terminations can be appealed within 30 days.

Tyler Mason, a UnitedHealth spokesperson, was not immediately available for comment when reached by Reuters.

At least two state medical societies are seeking temporary restraining orders against UnitedHealth and other state attorney generals are investigating the firm.

Attorneys in Connecticut, acting on behalf of the Hartford and Fairfield County Medical Associations, filed suit Friday after UnitedHealth dropped doctors serving the popular Medicare program, The Courant reported.

Other states expressed similar anger over the changes. In Rhode Island, the state's attorney general and health department director on Friday sent letters to UnitedHealth's New England CEO, asking him to reinstate doctors until a full plan for such a transition could be put in place, Rhode Island Public Radio reported.

Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Kilmartin and Health Department director Michael Fine told United Health that they are concerned the continuity of care will be lost in the shakeup. They also noted that UnitedHealth has not notified customers of the changes, leaving that up to doctors.

But the insurer told the WSJ that its provider networks were always changing and that it expected its Medicare Advantage network to be 85 percent to 90 percent of its current size by the end of 2014.

UnitedHealth is participating in about a dozen new state insurance markets that launched on October 1 to offer subsidized health coverage under Obamacare. The insurer had said previously it planned to withdraw from some markets in 2014 because of the government funding cuts.

Another top health insurer, Aetna Inc , also warned in October that it expected slowing growth in 2014 in its Medicare Advantage plans.


http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/doctors-dropped-medicare-unitedhealth
/2013/11/16/id/537000



What? No Medicare doctors because of the money Obama stole from Medicare to pay for the ACA?! Who knew, besides Republicans and the majority of Americans.

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Saturday, November 16, 2013 10:20 PM

JONGSSTRAW


1. Obamacare website debacle.

2. Obamacare existing insurance cancellations debacle.

3. Obamacare Medicare doctors shortage debacle.


Thanks! This is a gift that just keeps on giving.

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Sunday, November 17, 2013 1:01 PM

JONGSSTRAW


2014 :

4. Employer-provided insurance cancellations debacle

5. Employee layoffs debacle

6. Full-time to part-time employment debacle

7. Sebelius HHS Death Panels for Grandma and Grandpa debacle

8. Stolen I.D. fraud debacle

9. Hidden marriage penalty debacle

10. Higher payroll tax/less take home pay debacle.

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Sunday, November 17, 2013 3:20 PM

FREMDFIRMA



Bzzzrt!, Wrong Answer.

You DO know that UnitedHealth/FirstHealth/Coventry is a scam right ?
And has had their chops busted for it before, yes ?


From 2007, when they first got caught.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/correct-seniors-ask-for-protection-fr
om-medicare-advantage-fraud

Quote:

Following a series of Medicare Advantage sales scandals, seven companies -- United Healthcare, Humana, WellCare, Universal American Financial, Coventry Health Care, Sterling Life Insurance and BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee -- voluntarily suspended their marketing of private fee-for-service programs.

The companies will be allowed to resume marketing after meeting Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services guidelines released May 25 that include specific rules such as "verification of the beneficiaries intent to enroll, documented training of marketing agents and brokers, an inclusion of a clear disclaimer statement what (the) service is and what it is not," said the director of CMS, Abby Block.



If you want the real nitty-gritty and all the gory details here's the hearing transcript.
http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CHRG-110hhrg43431/html/CHRG-110hhrg43431.
htm


Busted again in 2008.
http://consumerist.com/2008/02/13/unitedhealth-group-accused-of-fraud/

And 2009.
http://www.dailyfinance.com/2009/01/14/unitedhealth-group-scams-consum
er-and-gets-busted
/

Still at it via telephone and mail scamming seniors as of 2011.
http://www.aarp.org/online-community/forums.action/technology_privacy-
security_united-healthcare-medicare-advantage-plan-telephone-scam


Relevant TV bit.




Personally I find it appalling that the rotty bastards are still even allowed to service Medicare contracts, but this is one way that Medicare tries to reduce costs, by putting the squeeze on companies who have previously ripped folks off and forcing them to service Medicare contracts at a cut rate in exchange for smaller settlements and avoiding prosecution - but IMHO this is like putting the fox in charge of the henhouse.

From the GAO perspective, if they service 70% of the contracts at a cut rate, and rip off, burn and leave to swing the other 30% that still goes in the "win" basket, but given these are peoples LIVES they're playin with, that ain't good enough for me.

So don't go blaming Obama for this one, these guys were scumbags long and long before he ever came along.

-F

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Sunday, November 17, 2013 4:21 PM

JONGSSTRAW


^^ Interesting info from the past, but none of that means anything to the current seniors with Medicare Advantage plans who will not be able to see the doctors they've been going to anymore. Old people are just funny that way. They have a harder time dealing with big changes and inconvenience than young people do.

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Sunday, November 17, 2013 4:34 PM

NIKI2

Gettin' old, but still a hippie at heart...


My thanx to Frem for ferreting out that information, I didn't know anything about UnitedHealth and didn't think to look. I think this thread has just been thoroughly debunked, too; Jong's entire article is about them, and it looks like they're in for litigation AGAIN, so looks like same old/same old with this company:
Quote:

At least two state medical societies are seeking temporary restraining orders against UnitedHealth and other state attorney generals are investigating the firm.

Attorneys in Connecticut, acting on behalf of the Hartford and Fairfield County Medical Associations, filed suit Friday after UnitedHealth dropped doctors serving the popular Medicare program, The Courant reported.


Good old NewsMax, at least they're predictable.

Oh, by the way, people who have been denied health insurance go broke and die, and people who can't afford health insurance get sick and die, and old people whose insurance has "lifetime limits" and "annual limits" get sick and die, too; more interesting tidbits from our past. Yer really reaching, Jongs, if you want to contrast the elderly having to find new doctors with the scams "insurance companies" (which weren't even that) have been pulling for decades.





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Sunday, November 17, 2013 10:50 PM

JONGSSTRAW


Desperate Obamacare supporters have nothing left but to demonize insurance companies. Let's see .... United Healthcare (which works in partnership with AARP}, Aetna, Humana, WellCare, Universal American Financial, Coventry Health Care, Sterling Life Insurance and BlueCross BlueShield, etc. are all evil and corrupt! That was one of the lies told when the Obamacare fraud first began. Americans didn't fall for it then, and they're not falling for it now.

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Monday, November 18, 2013 3:18 AM

SHINYGOODGUY


So true, so true.


SGG


Quote:

Originally posted by Niki2:
My thanx to Frem for ferreting out that information, I didn't know anything about UnitedHealth and didn't think to look. I think this thread has just been thoroughly debunked, too; Jong's entire article is about them, and it looks like they're in for litigation AGAIN, so looks like same old/same old with this company:
Quote:

At least two state medical societies are seeking temporary restraining orders against UnitedHealth and other state attorney generals are investigating the firm.

Attorneys in Connecticut, acting on behalf of the Hartford and Fairfield County Medical Associations, filed suit Friday after UnitedHealth dropped doctors serving the popular Medicare program, The Courant reported.


Good old NewsMax, at least they're predictable.

Oh, by the way, people who have been denied health insurance go broke and die, and people who can't afford health insurance get sick and die, and old people whose insurance has "lifetime limits" and "annual limits" get sick and die, too; more interesting tidbits from our past. Yer really reaching, Jongs, if you want to contrast the elderly having to find new doctors with the scams "insurance companies" (which weren't even that) have been pulling for decades.






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Monday, November 18, 2013 3:24 AM

SHINYGOODGUY


You forgot the Socialist Communist Lefty Pinko Wierdo debacle........

And the Kenyan Offshore Money Laundering Debacle


SGG

Quote:

Originally posted by Jongsstraw:
2014 :

4. Employer-provided insurance cancellations debacle

5. Employee layoffs debacle

6. Full-time to part-time employment debacle

7. Sebelius HHS Death Panels for Grandma and Grandpa debacle

8. Stolen I.D. fraud debacle

9. Hidden marriage penalty debacle

10. Higher payroll tax/less take home pay debacle.


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Monday, November 18, 2013 3:28 AM

SHINYGOODGUY


You failed to mention that a few shorts years ago there was a doctor who committed fraud on Medicare by replacing the medicine he was providing to his cancer patients with water and selling the medicine on the black market.

Several of his patients died.

That's Free enterprise for you


SGG

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Monday, November 18, 2013 3:39 AM

SHINYGOODGUY


Again, let me try and get you guys to think a little (quick get the fire extinguisher).

If the ACA, or as you guys call it Obamacare, is so bad, then why don't you let it run it's course. The ACA will fail, and the president lied about it - impeachable offense, you guys could get rid of the president.

Easy, peasy!!!

Say, how come Ted, or Bill, or Sarah, or Rush; hell Karl Rove or Cheney - why didn't they think of it.

Boy, you guys are dense!


SGG

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Monday, November 18, 2013 9:00 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


Quote:

Originally posted by Jongsstraw:
Desperate Obamacare supporters have nothing left but to demonize insurance companies.

Hollywood did its part, too, with The Rainmaker in 1997.
"Corrupt health insurance company sued by idealistic young lawyer Matt Damon and his cynical partner Danny DeVitto." The health insurance company would not pay and the lawyers' client died. No pay means no effective treatment, just palliative care, perhaps for free in an emergency room, at the very end of life.



The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Monday, November 18, 2013 9:10 AM

NIKI2

Gettin' old, but still a hippie at heart...


Ay-yup. Good one, that was. Watched it several times.

"No pay means no effective treatment, but the emergency room will see patients for free once it is too late for a cure." --And WE ALL get to pay for it. Continues to amaze me why our righties would rather keep it that way and are so desperately against everyone being responsible for their own health-care costs--which is what their buddies PUSHED "way back when" and what STARTED the ACA and the Individual Mandate.

NOBODY needs to "demonize" insurance companies; there have been literally thousands of stories like Rainmaker in the news for years, insurance companies are sued regularly for their games and everyone knows about it. I'll bet virtually everyone here knows one of those stories or some variation of it that's been experienced by a friend, relative or themselves.

When there's a demon walking down the street and people say "Hey, look, there's a demon", how is that "demonizing"?


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