Obamacare update: This isn’t a good sign – 70% of MDs in California are boycotting the state’s exchange

Great post by Mark Perry of "Carpe Diem".

This can’t be good…… The Washinton Examiner reports:

An estimated seven out of every 10 physicians in deep-blue California are rebelling against the state’s Obamacare health insurance exchange and won’t participate, the head of the state’s largest doctors’ association said.

California offers one of the lowest government reimbursement rates in the country — 30 percent lower than federal Medicare payments. And reimbursement rates for some procedures are even lower. In other states, Medicare pays doctors $76 for return-office visits. But in California, Medi-Cal’s reimbursement is $24. In other states, doctors receive between $500 to $700 to perform a tonsillectomy. In California, they get $160.

Only in September did insurance companies disclose that their rates would be pegged to California’s Medicaid plan, called Medi-Cal. That’s driven many doctors to just say no.
They’re also pointing out that Covered California’s website lists many doctors as participants when they aren’t. “Some physicians have been put in the network and they were included basically without their permission,” Lisa Folberg said. She is a California Medical Association’s vice president of medical and regulatory Policy.

“They may be listed as actually participating, but not of their own volition,” said Donald Waters, executive director of the Alameda-Contra Costa Medical Association. “This is a dirty little secret that is not really talked about as they promote Covered California,” Waters said. He called the exchange’s doctors list a “shell game” because “the vast majority” of his doctors are not participating.

Independent insurance brokers who work with both insurance companies and doctor networks estimate that about 70 percent of California’s 104,000 licensed doctors are boycotting the exchange. If a large number of doctors either balk at participating in the exchange or retire, the state’s medical system could be overwhelmed.

“Enrollment doesn’t mean access, because there aren’t enough doctors to take the low rates of Medicaid,” said Dr. Theodore M. Mazers, a past president of the San Diego County Medical Society. “There aren’t enough primary care physicians, period.”

MP: An important point that should receive much more attention:

Enrollment in Obamacare does NOT guarantee access to medical care.