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seek to push patients out of their private insurance plans into large public plans or from their private doctors into big hospital systems. In these systems, nobody is working to keep prices down on behalf of the patients. If anything, they are trying to keep their own expenses down and their revenue up on behalf of their bottom line.
Once upon a time most doctors were in private practice, and - in those days - typically the doctor’s spouse ran the office. Since the office earnings represented her income too, she would be very careful about the bills and expenses. She also would not want patients to feel aggrieved about a bill to the extent that they would not come back. While this type of practice may not become common again, it would be foolish to not recognize that concentrating medical care in large institutions will open it up to fraudsters, hackers, and heartless billing practices.
No, we should not support legislation that only offers patients the possibility of a single public health insurance plan. No, we should not hope for private practice to completely disappear and to be replaced by big hospital systems that will be purchased by even larger systems.
Yet, if we are only going to have large public or corporate systems, be prepared for more $1000 bills for shots or for simple blood tests, perhaps followed by an email saying that you are eligible for a financial windfall, or worse, that you suddenly need to pay a huge charge for some incomprehensible service. Beware of the future that you choose.
VARNUM’S HEALTH CARE LEGAL TEAM
Scott D. Alfree Chloe N. Cunningham Ronald G. DeWaard Charyn K. Hain
Yvonne Kupfermann Zachary J. Meyer Sarah L. Wixson Health Care Law
Practice Team Chair
Tier 1 Metropolitan Ranking in
■ Physician Services
■ Acquisitions/Joint Ventures
■ Professional/Medical Staff Issues
■ Contractual Relations
■ Managed Care/Integrated Delivery Systems
■ Regulatory Enforcement
■ Health Care Privacy
■ Bond Financing
■ Certificate of Need
■ Reimbursement Issues
■ Government/Legislative
■ Accreditation, Licensing, Certification
■ Antitrust Issues
■ Patient Care Issues
■ Quality Assurance and Risk Management
Third Quarter 2021
Detroit Medical News 21
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