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

[Ms. Toad]

193. I'm sure it is too late now -

but what you (if, heaven forbid it happens again) or anyone else similarly situated might do is to scour the community to find a doctor who accepts Medicare who had admitting rights at the hospital. It might have ended up being the same list - but hospitals are often lazy, or overwhelmed, or whatever the bureaucratic excuse of the day is, and fall back to a list that is limited or out of date or relies on a rotation of Medicare assignments, or only appoints the doctor on call for the day.

We weren't on Medicaid at the time, but we had a very restrictive insurance policy that left us in the cold with no surgeon for a procedure that had a very time-limited window (we were changing policies in a few months and most policies didn't even cover the surgery). We found a doc who accepted our insurance and had good recommendations (even though his qualifications were not, on paper, what we would have liked). He performed the surgery in a hospital with a staff he had never worked with before because that is where our insurance covered - and he had admitting privileges there (he couldn't have accepted our insurance if he hadn't had them). But the hospital never would have assigned him to us, since he wasn't even on their radar.

And - no - it shouldn't have to be that complex (and wouldn't be if we got single payer like we should have). But there are often ways to work the system (and because it is so complex, the need to work the system keeps a lot of people from getting the care they deserve - especially people who have fewer educational/personal/financial resources - but I have seen some very well situated people stymied by the system as well).