The federal government might default on its debt sometime next week. This potential scenario has doctors and hospitals very worried. Physicians groups are warning their members that there is a possibility that their Medicare paychecks will stop coming. This could lead to doctors refusing to take patients who are using Medicare, until the “debt ceiling” issue is resolved. It seems to me that Medicare has been in the news quite frequently in the past year. It has been said that the federal government is about to run out of funding for Medicare very soon. In part, this has been connected … Continue reading →

The Obama administration has decided against doing surveys that would involve having “mystery shoppers” calling doctor’s offices in order to find out information about how difficult it would be to get an appointment. This decision comes after much criticism of the idea. A “mystery shopper” is a term used to describe a person who is pretending to be a typical customer, but who is actually doing a type of undercover investigation for the purposes of gathering specific types of information about the business, corporation, store, or office. You may have heard the term “secret shopper”, which means the exact same … Continue reading →

An undercover survey done in Illinois reveals that doctors are resistant to provide outpatient care for children who are covered by Medicaid Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). The survey’s results match a previous one that found that Illinois dentists were also unwilling to take children who used CHIP. The reasons why may have something to do with how physicians are reimbursed in Illinois. Medicaid is a federal run health insurance program designed to be used by people who have low incomes. The Medicaid Children’s Health Insurance Program is, obviously, designed to cover children whose parent’s don’t make enough money to … Continue reading →