A Physician’s New Reality: Patients Ask Me to Break the Law

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Dr Peter Weiss @ PJMedia:

Obama won, Obamacare is the law, and, as my wife says, I will just have to learn to dance to a new song.

Now, don’t get me wrong, Obamacare is awful. Forget all the “free stuff” it provides. Children covered on their parents’ plan until 26 years of age? A scam, making young adults — excuse me, children — pay for complete, comprehensive health insurance when all they need and should pay for is major catastrophe insurance. Then there is the “annual ” or “preventative” exam, which according to Obamacare is “free.”

You gotta love this stuff. I wish I had the chutzpah of the people who wrote Obamacare. What they did not tell you, and I am, is that it covers absolutely nothing more than the bare minimum.

I have now posted a notice in my office and each exam room stating exactly what Obamacare will cover for those yearly visits. Remember Obama promised this as a free exam — no co-pay, no deductible, no charge. That’s fine and dandy if you are healthy and have no complaints. However, we are obligated by law to code specifically for the reason of the visit. An annual exam is one specific code; you can not mix this with another code, say, for rectal bleeding. This annual visit covers the exam and “discussion about the status of previously diagnosed stable conditions.” That’s the exact wording under that code — insurance will not cover any new ailment under that code.

If you are here for that annual exam, you will not be covered if you want to discuss any new ailment or unstable condition. I cannot bait and switch to another code — that’s illegal. We, the physicians, are audited all the time and can lose our license for insurance fraud.

You, the patient, will then have to make a decision.

Do you want your “free” yearly exam, or do you want to pay for a visit which is coded for a particular, new problem? You can have my “free” exam if you only discuss what Obamacare wants me to discuss.

This happened to me personally, as a patient, when I went for my physical. It is the law. If you are complaining of a new problem, then you have to reschedule, since Obamacare is very clear as to what is covered and what is not. Obamacare — intentionally — makes it as difficult to be seen and taken care of as possible.

Patients can be very tricky. I have had patients make an “annual” exam, only to want to discuss and be treated for another ailment. I can’t do it.

I can hear the complaints from you guys already — I become the bad guy. “Why don’t you just take care of the problem, and not bill out any different code? You’re a rich doctor, and we are entitled to free stuff.”

It doesn’t work that way. First, doctors are not rich and, like most of you, actually work terribly hard for a living. Second, Obamacare is the law — and as I said earlier, we are audited all the time now.

Also — I don’t ask for free gas when I go to the gas station, or ask for free food from the supermarket. Additionally, Obamacare has a 23% cut in Medicare reimbursement to doctors and hospitals.

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“They had to pass [ObamaCare] before we could find out what was in it.”
(Nancy P. paraphrase)

As each various facet becomes known it is seen to be a SHAM!
Many states with Republican governors told the feds to set up their state’s exchanges.
They realize those exchanges are a black hole of regulations too easy to mess up.
The feds (Dems only) wanted it to bad, let them set up the exchanges.

I doubt it can ever be really implemented.
But ”free” is sure becoming expensive.

As any honest physician was shouting before the marxist overlords crammed this down our throats that horrible Christmas season a couple of years back…Obamacare is absolutely NOT and has NEVER been about providing health care. It has ALWAYS been about CONTROLLING the masses by taking over health care and limiting who gets what we actually used to consider medical care. Now, because over 50% of the American public is literally too stupid, lazy and/or greedy to understand what they have wrought, they have placed the chains of slavery onto themselves and their future progeny- handing the keys and the lash to the marxist political plantation owners in their best ,”Yassuh, Massah Obama…We’s all bein’ good slaves now….” voices.
If some moron leftard tries to spew their collectivist garbage about the glories of Obamacare providing “free” health care to people who couldn’t before afford it, just ask them this simple question…”How many new doctors does Obamacare produce to see all these MILLIONS of new patients?” You will see the epitome of Orwell’s concept of ‘doublethink’ as the leftist’s brain shortcircuits trying to square their idiotic magical thinking ideology with the cold cruel thing called “reality”.
The only physicians pushing for this first step in the government takeover of healthcare are academic types who don’t spend much time actually seeing patients, and brand new physicians who have not yet been out of medical school/residency long enough to be cured of the brainwashing they received in training.
Democrats are evil. Period. They knew what they were doing and they don’t care because they exempted themselves and their family members from Obamacare’s effects. Establishment republicans are stupid and incompetent for not finding a better way to bring bloody-knuckles political marketing to reach the 50% plus of voting morons at the visceral/emotional level needed to knock some basic economic sense into them. You can’t fight the image of Santa Claus for President in the mind of the intellectually lazy by putting up dry, mind-numbing charts no matter how clear the facts are to those who care enough to understand. You have to COMMUNICATE at the cognitive and emotional level of the audience to get them to understand WHY they need to care about what the Obamunists are doing. The Gramscians have been incredibly successful in dumbing down the public over decades, such that the crushing weight of peer pressure is more than most people are willing to endure.

I weep for the future. May God forgive us for squandering His blessings on our country.

Babydoc
YOU MADE ME CRY ALSO,
AMERICA FOR GOD TO HEAL HER
NOTHING ELSE WILL DO.

DR PETER WEISS
@pjmedia
thank you for the explanation, the best one I heard so far,
I feel your anger as much as the people who go see you and all other doctors,
they will be very angry indeed, when they need the care and are send the bill
which was told to be free