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Vermonter2014
Member since Oct 2, 2014
Latest Review
Recent Comments
Re: “Independent Docs Struggle to Compete With Hospitals”
To respond to LetsBeReasonable, a few things you may not know....
There are 150+ independent physicians in Healthfirst, and at least double that number of stand alone private practices outside Healthfirst in Vermont, who take all forms of insurance - Medicaid, Medicare, and uninsured patients. "Cherry picking" may be a problem in "some locations", but not so much in Vermont. Furthermore, many of Vermont's independent physicians serve on teaching boards at Fletcher Allen and regularly teach residents inside their own practices so they also share the burden for medical education.
In addition to facility fees charged by the hospitals, which the author points out are meant to cover the extra costs of subsidizing ERs and other services, hospitals also receive separate DSH (disproportionate share) payments for taking care of uninsured patients and those with Medicare/Medicaid, and separate GME payments to support graduate medical education.
The truth is that hospitals have access to many different payment streams that can offset lower rates from public insurers, and subsidize education and research.
To allow them also to use their market power to drive-up professional service fees from private payers seems not only unfair to independent physicians, but more importantly to consumers who ultimately foot the bill for inflated prices by way of increased premiums and co-pays.
Posted by
Vermonter2014
on 10/02/2014 at 1:38 PM
Re: “Peg & Ter's”
Peg & Ter's is such a great addition to the dining landscape south of Burlington. The bar scene is really fun and the staff are all extremely friendly. The burger is superb, with a sunny side up egg on top. The desserts are the best part -- definitely order the donuts!