You Have to Pass the Bill to Find Out What's In the Bill

Joanne Silberner stood at the podium, about to referee a CityClub panel on health-care costs.

As a former health-policy correspondent for National Public Radio, Silberner knows a lot.

But, she told the panelists and the audience, she was baffled when she got two bills after a recent visit to a dermatologist.

One bill, for $109, was for the doctor, who saw her in his office at the Roosevelt Clinic. Then, to her dismay, she got another bill — $228 — for using the space.

The care she got seemed identical to an earlier visit with a dermatologist at another clinic — except for the two-bill whammy.

Such add-on facility charges are increasingly common for office visits — even routine ones — as hospitals around the country consolidate and buy independent practices. Clinics and practices operated by hospitals can charge the fees, as Silberner discovered at Roosevelt Clinic, licensed by UW Medical, a hospital system.
 

What?  No unicorns and double rainbows?  Incredible.  Or, maybe not.  Doctors are getting and will be getting gouged by Obamacare.  In a recent poll, 83% of Physicians considered quitting the industry (and it is an industry) when Obamacare was passed.  This is specifically related to low ball costs mandated by the Federal Government amoung other costly items.  As with any industry, the facilitator will look for a more sensible way to control costs, or consider following another career path. 

Guess what...hospitals see this as a way to diversify and secure a stable business environment so that they can continue to do business in the black...and not the red.  They have to make up the difference for E/R visits by the chronically uninsured, and more frequent illegal immigrants somehow.   This is one such way, that was created by Obamacare.