[MSGirl]

For those of you on The Villages UHC Healthcare 1 and 2 and AARP Medicare Advantage plans, UHC is terminating their participation effective Sept 1,2018. What this means to you is that you can no longer see Dr Casper, Dr Bolton or any of the other drs in this practice with the exception of UHC The Villages Medicare plan 2 (the $81 per month plan). You will be out of network and will pay a $30 copay.
There is a petition in each of the offices to sign to try and stay in the system. If you are a patient of this practice, I encourage you to drop by any of their 3 locations and sign the petition!

[villagetinker]

OK, that explains it, we have AARP UHC supplemental plans, as we had previous problems the villages Supplemental plans not being accepted by some of our specialists. Good luck with the petitions.

[CFrance]

Originally Posted by villagetinker

OK, that explains it, we have AARP UHC supplemental plans, as we had previous problems the villages Supplemental plans not being accepted by some of our specialists. Good luck with the petitions.

Your statement is confusing to me. Are you then not affected by Alliant's action because you have a supplemental plan rather than an advantage plan?



My husband has an AARP supplemental, and we use Dr. Casper. Will our insurance still be accepted by Alliant?

[MSGirl]

Originally Posted by CFrance

Your statement is confusing to me. Are you then not affected by Alliant's action because you have a supplemental plan rather than an advantage plan?



My husband has an AARP supplemental, and we use Dr. Casper. Will our insurance still be accepted by Alliant?

Sorry to be confusing. If you have Medicare and AARP supplement, you are ok. It only effects the AARP Medicare Advantage plan.

[Dan9871]

Originally Posted by CFrance

My husband has an AARP supplemental, and we use Dr. Casper. Will our insurance still be accepted by Alliant?

It's only some advantage plans. The info is on Alliant's web page here:

Alliant Dermatology and Skin Cancer Center - We are a premier Dermatology office led by board certified Dermatologist, David J. Casper, MD

The details are in a letter here:

http://cloud2.snappages.com/245674c0...une%202018.pdf

[NotGolfer]

Looks to me like The Villages Health, Advantage Plan is affected. It's not Dr. Caspar and his group BUT Medicare who is doing it. In the PDF it's explained and patients are told who they may make an appeal to.

[MSGirl]

Originally Posted by NotGolfer

Looks to me like The Villages Health, Advantage Plan is affected. It's not Dr. Caspar and his group BUT Medicare who is doing it. In the PDF it's explained and patients are told who they may make an appeal to.

Correct. As well as the AARP Medicare Advantage plan. If one has the UHC The Villages plan 2, they may still use Dr Casper but at the out of network cost of $30. Plan 1 does not have an out of network benefit

[NotGolfer]

Originally Posted by MSGirl

Correct. As well as the AARP Medicare Advantage plan. If one has the UHC The Villages plan 2, they may still use Dr Casper but at the out of network cost of $30. Plan 1 does not have an out of network benefit

I'm not sure which one we have but we have a co-pay for specialists....so perhaps we're "good". Still going to check on this though.

[villagerjack]

Why would a Plan drop one practice and retain another? Does it have anything to do with the number and types of claims? This practice expanded aggressively over the last few years and as a patient of dermatologists for close to 30 years, I notice the number of surgeries has increased greatly. For close to 20 years, I had a single surgery and for the last 8-10 years, I had at least 2 or 3 MOHS surgeries every year.

[NotGolfer]

Medicare, itself dropped these is how I read it and not the plan itself or the doctors (clinic). Insurance is about making money and not about the care of patients which is VERY unfortunate.

[graciegirl]

...

[theorem painter]

Originally Posted by NotGolfer

I'm not sure which one we have but we have a co-pay for specialists....so perhaps we're "good". Still going to check on this though.

If you have the plan that you pay $81 a month for you will pay a copay of $30.

[KyWoman]

Grace, Even though asking patients to sign a petition probably won't do a thing, I see no harm in doing it, especially when their very lively hood is threatened. They work hard to build a patient base only to have it ripped away from them. Of course, that's what can happen when you agree to play with the devil.

[graciegirl]

…///

[Boomer]

Originally Posted by graciegirl

Insurance is about staying solvent as well.

I like David Casper a lot. I can't believe he would encourage signing a petition. That does not seem realistic.

“Staying solvent,” you say. Of course, but, actually, staying highly profitable is what drives the game plan in any publicly traded stock.

Yesterday, June 8, United Healthcare stock (UNH) closed at $250.68, near its 52-week high of $251.50. The stock’s 52-week low was $176.42. (What does the percentage math on that say.)

Also, United Healthcare has raised its stockholder dividend with a 20% increase and has announced a new 100 million shares buyback program. Gee. Where did allllll that cash come from.

Before I am accused of being some kind of commie pinko who does not like the stock market, let me say that I like it fine. I am in it — though not with healthcare stocks.

Publicly traded healthcare stocks have the interests of the stockholders and CEOs way ahead of patients and their doctors.

I can own toothpaste. I can own tech. I can own utilities.

But I do not want to own a piece of another person’s life, potentially their actual life.