Those are fair points. From our specialty clinic's POV, Medicare has been great as far insurers go[0]. I've not had to deal with them at a hospital's scale.
reply[0]File under "damning with faint praise".
> Executives like to lament the lose money on Medicare but I never really saw it that way.
replyWe're in the totally opposite boat. We actually prefer Medicare patients vs private insurance not only because of the reimbursement, but the way in which they reimburse us (one lump sum vs visit-by-visit auth that requires manpower to manage).
Some of the requirements can be onerous, but on the whole, they're easier to plan for than the private stuff.
You’re not a hospital then. I see this with some specialties or types of providers. I’ve also seen it do complete 180. As in, Medicare is high reimbursement for a decade or two allowing a specialty to proliferate, then one day they rug pull the rates and the specialty is scrambling because they’ve not been running managed care part of their practice (the part that negotiates with commercial plans). It’s a huge headache all around and I do agree Medicare is easy once established.
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