Home Forums Discussions General Discussion anyone stop seeing medicare

I am getting really tired of all the paperwork, MU, reporting, penalties that I have to deal with Medicare patients and insurances based off Medicare. My practice is about 10-15 % Medicare, Medicare HMO, Medicare advantage. My friend says she just dropped Medicare and go with straight commercial insurances even if the reimbursements are not that great. Has anyone tried this or know of anyone who has gone to no Medicare? How are they doing and is it feasible?

I opened my practice 3.5 years ago and never took Government insurance at all. Most people told me it would take 2 years to "build the practice" so it took about six months longer. Now I book about 2 weeks out and all my slots are full. If you "opt out" of medicare you can still see them for cash if you want too.

I would look at how many new patients you see in a month and how many are medicare and that should give you an idea of how long it will take to replace the ones you're going to lose.

Bear in mind this response is from "the lunatic fringe." On the other hand, it is "the lunatic fringe" who loves medicine, has financially not had to work in 15 years, and still chooses to practice medicine every day.

We opted out of Medicare 15 years ago and never regretted it. We saw our older patients under private contract, and charged what they could afford, or nothing at all (fraudulent if you are still part of the system.). We thought we would take a big income hit. Our income went up $40,000/year, even just charging what patients felt they could pay.

It gave us the financial freedom to move to a remote island and work for very little. Do what feels right to you. Very few colleagues feel this was an option.

I opened my practice 6 years ago. After just a short time I closed my panel to new Medicare patients. The bulk of my practice now consists of commercial and self pay patients with <5% Medicare.

I hate for the seniors that hardly anyone around her takes Medicare, but that's just the way it is. My existing Medicare patients are getting fewer in numbers because I'm not participating with any Medicare HMO plans and they get lured in by big promises.

If your area can support you not accepting Medicare, and you don't want to, then don't.

Being a senior myself, to not take Medicare would certainly be seen as hypocritical, not to mention, it just feels wrong.
There is no answer to this dilemma--
Seniors are slower, more complex, much more administratively challenging -- and lower reimbursement.
Specialists have sucked off all the procedures.
I try to stick with one or two problems at a visit, but it really is impossible, given their multiple overlapping co-morbidities and inability to easily get to the office.

I am now like the Red Queen, running faster every day to keep from going backward.
I would say it is an open question whether I become insolvent before I get too old to practice, or the other way around

In 2009, 50% of my schedule was filled by Medicare patients but Medicare only accounted for about 20% of my income. It was an untenable situation and I desperately wanted to remain in independent practice. So I opted out of Medicare. About 70% of my Medicare patients left...but 30% stayed and pay cash for their office visits. Some pay less if they can't afford it and there are several that I see for nothing. One of my Medicare patients wrote me a note that said "I'm happy you dropped out. I always felt like a Medicare deadbeat when I looked at the EOBs". I don't have to worry about MU, and all the other craziness that my colleagues have to deal with. It's a breath of fresh air.
On the other hand, like Tomastoria above, I'm in my late 50s and MC is on the horizon for me.......mulling it over. Hmmm, what to do, what to do.

Dale, my personal solution is to put "self pay" as insurance information on my personal providers application, then hand them my Visa card. The routine stuff I can afford the big ticket items are hospital related and I let them do it for pennies.