but it's still in the 90-day grace period. But if they come in on their
88
th
day and have a colonoscopy, then don't pay their premium, they
get dropped and our claim gets denied. If we know when the grace
period is up, we can move the procedure out to make sure they have
paid."
But that means spending time on the phone and hoping that the per-
son on the other end can answer the question. "A lot of practices do
not have the staff to do that," she says.
Who's winning?
The second common theme is that the ACA's greatest beneficiaries are
neither patients nor providers, but insurance companies. After all, if
more people are paying premiums, but still aren't getting the care they
need, someone else must be making out.
"Obamacare had nothing to do with Obama or care," says Robert
Kotler, MD, FACS, of the Summit Surgery Center in Beverly Hills,
Calif. "The insurance industry merely wanted more customers. Young
and healthy customers, of course. That's all you need to know. They
wrote the bill and their puppets in Congress signed it. Done deal.
Everyone's happy except the patients."
Success stories
Despite the perceived shortcomings, however, most aren't ready to
scrap the whole law. Asked whether they'd like to see the ACA
repealed, 47% of our respondents said yes, 27% said no and 26% said
only if there's a better way to reduce the number of uninsured
Americans.
Chris Ibinkunle, MD, MBA, CEO of SurgiCare Gwinnett (Ga.) ASC,
doesn't favor repeal, but would like to see the law improved. "It's
cumbersome," he says, "and lacks several important components,
such as tort reform, commercial payer oversight and simplification to
reduce administration costs."
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