Quote:
Originally Posted by dbussone
A hospital or large private practice would typically employ physicians. If UHC does employ certain physicians that would be an unusual relationship.
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It would be unusual because I think it hasn't been done since Humana Gold Plus (HMO) tried it many years ago. I can't give exact dates but I believe it was around the mid to late 80s when I first became aware of it.
I was operating a small business at the time and I kept hearing about it from my customers. They kept saying how great it was so I got my mother interested and she joined.
I'm sure it doesn't work the same today as it did then because, hopefully, they have learned from past mistakes. Back then the doctors were all employed (under contract) by the HMO. The doctors were given a certain amount of money to take care of each patient. The money was supposed to be more than enough to cover all treatment expenses and whatever money was left over the doctor would keep for himself or herself. So less treatment expense would mean a bigger salary, and, conversely, more treatment expense would mean a smaller salary.
Well, it worked fine a long as my mother was in good health. When she started having symptoms, they would say it was just part of the aging process. Failing memory, lack of balance and incontinence etc. was all part of normal aging according to them (at about 81). After about a year they started saying it was congestive heart failure. I asked if she could see a heart specialist and was told it wouldn't be necessary.
We tried changing to another doctor within the same clinic and it only got worse. The new doctor was wise to what was going on and wouldn't even say hello to my mother when she entered the exam room. She knew she would be acquiring a liability that some other doctor no longer wanted.
So I got her back into regular Medicare and took her to a heart specialist. And after the doctor examined her, he said, "she definitely doesn't have congestive heart failure." It took another year before we got an accurate diagnosis for her symptoms. She had fluid pressure on the brain which required a neurologist.