Medicare Advantage plans and regular Medicare are on the lower end of payments to physicians. Younger patients who are employed and have health insurance reimburse doctors at higher rates than Medicare does. I remember when I worked in the biotech industry I was sometimes involved in discussions with physician offices about reimbursement for our oncology products. The physicians and practice managers kept track of the percentage of Medicare patients in their practices. The higher the Medicare percentage got the lower their reimbursement rate became. They obviously preferred private insurance and younger patients. So bottom line, an area like the Villages, with mostly Medicare patients, is not attractive to physicians or hospitals. That is why we don’t attract a large number of physicians to this area. Low reimbursement from Medicare equals low interest from doctors to locate here.

Been in TV 6 years and the healthcare has been outstanding,

The above statement is incorrect and he should have done a better job to research his claim prior to posting.

Practitioner here in the villages
 

I have been a nurse practitioner for over 25 years and have practiced in too many states to mention. :)
I moved here because my folks are here part of the year ! The sad reality is the number of patients per doctor ratio is limited. The Volume load is unrealistic and the Emergency situation personally scares me. I LOVE the Villages, my neighbors the best ever. The patients my favorite ever ! Sadly however I feel the care is great if you have a Medicare plan that you can go anywhere Without. A referral. If you are healthy you can’t compare your situation to others. Be thankful you are blessed. Many patients are unaware of the lacking skills of routine practitioners. I would rather work in an A environment rather than s subpar one. I wish I could not write this but be judgmental of your care. Research guidelines. You can trust that all the providers are 1. Board certified
2. Penalised for referrals
3 seeing way too many patients a day
Im not even talking about one practice in particular. These are my personal views on my experiences as an experienced practitioner
With that said I continue to support life here it is paradise. Please just don’t be blind. What the author said is often correct here
I am a patient advocate , I love this community. I hope one day the services improve for health care ! Sometimes Gainesville doesn’t help if you need an ER.

How Much More Than Medicare Do Private Insurers Pay? A Review of the Literature | KFF

Key Findings

Private insurers paid nearly double Medicare rates for all hospital services (199% of Medicare rates, on average), ranging from 141% to 259% of Medicare rates across the reviewed studies.

The difference between private and Medicare rates was greater for outpatient than inpatient hospital services, which averaged 264% and 189% of Medicare rates overall, respectively.

For physician services, private insurance paid 143% of Medicare rates, on average, ranging from 118% to 179% of Medicare rates across studies.

And if you have cancer your oncologist will not cure you. All they do is destroy your immune system. Learn how to be your own doctor.Understand what is poisoning you first and formost. When we go back to the original healing system we will be much healthier. Remember 70 years ago. Very few doctors, hospitals, cvs, walgreens, cancer centers, etc..Our food and water system is slowly killing us.

Another silly post. Villages takes my insurance and we have other great providers. Also, mother in law lives here and has Medicare and she also has great providers.

OP is same person that posted about HOA fees.

Your post is incorrect. I do not have United Healthcare Advantage, I have Medicare and UHC and most of my specialists, cardiologist, rheumatologist, gynecologist are with The Villages Health.

You do not have to go outside TV. We have Medicare with a supplemental plan and are very happy with our doctors....all within TV!

Yes! I have the same insurance you mentioned and have multiple physicians in The Villages Health.

Go to Ocala family health they have everything under one roof
It’s only s 25 minutes from the villages They are honest and have there prices posted

That’s what I’ve always thought. Doesn’t make sense.

The Villages Health has the best doctors!

I was unable to use The Villages Healthcare System (except for the medical imaging, which is fine) because my retirement package requires me to use Blue Cross as my backup or pay a lot more. My first interest was to choose doctors who are affiliated with a hospital with an A rating. The Villages hospital and all the Ocala hospitals have B ratings. Not good enough. Often this is due to higher rates for hospital-acquired infections. (Sort of like finding roaches in a restaurant kitchen, right?) The closest A-rated hospital is AdventHealth/Waterman. It is excellent, but it’s 45 minutes away from my house. So it goes. That’s no farther than Ocala. I then went on their website, where I found a list of affiliated doctors. Many were not accepting new patients, but some were. For my “family doctor,” I found a Peruvian med school graduate who is board certified in Internal Medicine, Dr. César Unyon. I’m very pleased with his work. If I need a specialist, he gets me an appointment with a doctor who uses AdventHealth/Waterman, including with doctors not accepting new patients. If I were to need even more advanced care, AdventHealth/Waterman is allied with AdventHealth/Orlando, the top-rated hospital in Florida. Waterman is new, quiet, semi-rural, with good parking, right off 441, and friendly. I had major surgery there, and I was very impressed.

One thing about doctors around here: a LOT of them are from a wide variety of minorities. If that’s a problem for you, you would do well to not move to this area.