Musings of a Dinosaur

A Family Doctor in solo private practice; I may be going the way of the dinosaur, but I'm not dead yet.

Friday, August 25, 2006

What should I do?

Starting September 22nd, the government will not be sending out Medicare payments for nine days. (Really.) No interest; no late fee; no nothing. Just no checks.

What do you think would happen if I just decided not to pay my office rent until the 10th of the month when it's due on the 1st? What if I didn't pay my electric or phone bill? Do you think the credit card company would bat an eye if I dropped them a note telling them my September payment was going to be nine days late and not to bother charging me extra? Do you think pigs can fly?

My landlord would be at my door daily; my phone and electric would probably be cut off after a week (a bit of exaggeration given my stellar credit rating) and the credit card companies would cheerfully ignore my protests that I had told them all about it ahead of time.

So it would appear that in the world of business, service stops when not paid for. I can do that.

Between September 22nd and October 1st, I will refuse to see Medicare patients in my office. If they need care urgently, they can go to the ER. I shall also tell them exactly why I am imposing a moratorium on caring for them. And if (when?) this happens again next year and the year after that, I'll just be that much closer to the brink of opting out of Medicare entirely.

3 Comments:

At Tue Aug 29, 08:25:00 AM, Blogger M. Dyspnea said...

I'm still so far away from having to deal with these types of problems and I just keep hoping that more and more people stick to their principles like you're doing here. Try to have the whole medical reimbursement issue handled before 2015, if you could.

Best of luck, topher.

 
At Fri Sep 01, 05:36:00 PM, Blogger ismd said...

I'm doing the same for those days. It's shameful that many of our colleagues have an "oh, well" attitude about this.

 
At Wed Sep 13, 03:10:00 PM, Blogger #1 Dinosaur said...

I agree, Yuri. Cash only is my ultimate goal, approaching inexorably. I'm just not sure what's going to actually push me over the edge, though.

 

Post a Comment

<< Home