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

To: Lane3 who wrote (12995)	1/10/2010 4:26:41 PM
From: i-node	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 42652

Only with a private contract. They can't just see a Medicare patient and send that patient a bill like they would with a non-Medicare patient unless it's an emergency. Keep in mind that a "private contract" would merely be one more signature you give at the front desk. Just like the patient currently provides a signature, for example, for assignment of benefits which the doc must keep on file if he/she is filing claims on your behalf that are to be paid directly to the clinic. And even then they can only charge the Medicare price, not their usual fee. I'm not aware of this provision. In a private contract Medicare is not a party to the contract. You can charge whatever you want to so long as the pt. agrees to it AFAIK and you're not required to take "writeoffs" for the excess over the Medicare allowable. This is something I don't see routinely, but I HAVE seen it (e.g., cosmetic procedures that WOULD BE covered services but where a wealthy patient decides he/she would rather use the services of a more prominent surgeon; that doctor is not bound by Medicare fee schedules under a private contract, or at least I've seen it handled as though they aren't).