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Politics : A US National Health Care System? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: i-node who wrote (12987)	1/9/2010 1:40:17 PM
From: Lane3	Respond to of 42652

I would think that would be highly unusual. It may be. It doesn't seem so to me because my previous primary care physician had a concierge practice and my current one sent around a survey to see if her patients were interested in private contracts. (The latter is a gerontologist.) That would be quite a coincidence were it not fairly common. I was under the impression that a private contract was needed. This piece directed at shrinks about their patients aging into Medicare without the doctor noticing suggests that's the case: "At the point that you realize you've been seeing a Medicare beneficiary but you haven't been filing claims with Medicare, there are two choices. First, if you know you never want to have anything to do with Medicare, you can refund the payments your patients have given you since they became Medicare enrollees, opt out of Medicare, and sign private contracts with these patients; they can then resume paying your fee as they had been. " pn.psychiatryonline.org Edit: Maybe you wouldn't need a contract if you charged them only the Medicare rate. But, then, what would be the point of not accepting Medicare patients?