A doctor who won't take any insurance or Medicare? Yank their license, plus imprisonment.

[jsmirman]

74. Definitely the view of a person who doesn't know

My father took most forms of insurance and definitely took medicare - why? Because he was, at least near the end, a great doctor and a lousy businessman.

I had to decipher, organize, and sell his practice when the time came. So I have more than enough first-hand knowledge of what medicare payments look like. They're pathetic. Painfully low. Like make it impossible to run a practice low.

My father was always in it to be a good doctor, and he did clinics his entire life, and, as noted above, served an entire half of his practice that paid out at medicare rates.

Let me tell you, pretty damn hard to find anyone who would take on our medicares, as it can cripple a practice if you can't move them through efficiently enough to avoid taking a significant loss on each medicare patient.

Ultimately, we were able to place them because we give a shit and because part of my father's legacy was making sure that the patients he had done so much for were taken proper care of after he was gone.

But the medicare payouts are often criminally low. Doctors' offices have *significant* overhead, that the OP seems to be unaware of. I wish everyone took medicare, like my father did, but I also understand that with monthly rent/maintenance, nurse pay, lab costs, x ray machine costs, other monthly rental payouts you have to make just to operate a doctor's office - getting 17 bucks for a procedure you would normally charge $125 for really sours you on taking medicare. If, unlike my dad, you have even a tiny bit of businessman working there.

Currently, my solution is to ask that people take a certain percentage, like 25 to 30% of their practice, to help service medicare patients. But the payouts are fucked up.