To: i-node who wrote (199879 ) 5/3/2009 4:46:23 PM From: neolib Read Replies (1) | Respond to That they are required to charge the same to self-pay patients as they do Medicare? For example, the UCR for a Lap Cholecystectomy here is $970, while Medicare pays $578 (at my locality). A surgeon cannot even pay his malpractice insurance and office overhead based on that $578 payment, let alone generate any take-home pay. If you are a Medicare patient and your provider "still makes money", it is only because he/she has a patient mix that permits it. As one who often advises physicians on this subject, I can tell you that we advise extreme caution when taking on Medicare patients, since it is impossible to make a decent living with only Medicare patients. For 19 of the states that cap noneconomic damages, the MLM found that in 2002 the average premium for internists ranged from $ 4,023 to $ 10,098, for general surgeons, $ 10,896 to $ 35,915, and for obstetricians/gynecologists $ 17,786 to $ 55,084. In Table 1, we show the states with caps, identify their type of rating law and give an estimate of the average premium increase in 2002. Without the subsidy provided by commercial insurance, there is almost no portion of the medical community that could make a decent living.
