A Doctor’s Take on Health Reform
by Anne Kelly KFYR TV
Posted on 8/5/2009
Everyone from patients to policy makers has their opinion about what should be done to fix our nation’s healthcare system. But one health reform policy won’t fix every problem, at least that’s what one doctor says is the key thing to consider as Capitol Hill works to settle on a reform policy for our nation.
Neurologist Shiraz Hyder of St. Alexius spoke with KFYR earlier this week and pointed out some key concerns he has with the current health reform policy in the House. Among his concerns, that a public option will have the same reimbursement rate as Medicare. That means hospitals would make about 90 cents for every dollar they spend on a patient who has the public option. Hyder says if that is that case, hospitals and clinics in rural states like North Dakota won’t survive.
“Financially most of the hospitals barely break even,” says Hyder. “Most hospitals in North dakota have a red margin and if you push it further through this public option I’m afraid that this will drive physicians out of state and the hospitals will go bankrupt.”
Hyder says most hospitals survive right now by funds gathered through commercial payers such as Blue Cross Blue Shield. He worries that if people switch to a public option there will be fewer patients commercially covered. Hyder says a possible way to fix the reimbursement problem would be to have a different healthcare policy for rural and urban states, as currently rural and urban states are reimbursed at different rates.
Another concern Hyder has is that health reform will cost money rather than save money. He says that’s because doctors have to practice defensive medicine, out of fears of being sued. Therefore they spend thousands on tests of patients, driving up the costs of healthcare.
