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It seems to me that United Health is playing right into the ObamaCare flawed methodology by lumping all cancer patients into catagories and then paying the physicians & hospitals only enough for standard treatment regimes. There's no incentive for the physician to individualize treatment to a patient's specific needs. Since every patient's needs are unique, grouping treatments in this manner is not good medicine, IMO. This United Health experiment reminds me of how the "scheduled benefit" type of insurance plans pay a fixed dollar amount for specific surgeries, illnesses, etc. If United Health customers knew about this, they wouldn't be happy.
Excerpt:
"Health insurer UnitedHealth said Tuesday that it will test a new way payment method for cancer doctors. The program pays doctors a lump sum payment for providing care during an entire course of care for the disease instead of how it's done now — with a fee for each service a doctor provides."
List of News Stories on this Subject:
UnitedHealth Says It Will Test Lump Sum Payments For Some Cancer Care - Kaiser Health News
In addition, it appears to me that the patient is in serious trouble if the lump-sum payment isn't enough to cover their full treatment regime. What if United Health only pays $90,000, but your total treatments run up to $140,000? Does the hospital simply stop the cancer treatments when your tab reaches $90,000? It seems that UnitedHealth is breaking the new law by capping payments in this manner. But, since it's a way to reduce the upward cost curve, HHS will probably give UnitedHealth a big hug and encourage other companies to follow their example. The fact that patients could suffer financially, and/or die un-necessarily, is just a price to pay for achieving the goals of ObamaScare.
-AC
Excerpt:
"Health insurer UnitedHealth said Tuesday that it will test a new way payment method for cancer doctors. The program pays doctors a lump sum payment for providing care during an entire course of care for the disease instead of how it's done now — with a fee for each service a doctor provides."
List of News Stories on this Subject:
UnitedHealth Says It Will Test Lump Sum Payments For Some Cancer Care - Kaiser Health News
In addition, it appears to me that the patient is in serious trouble if the lump-sum payment isn't enough to cover their full treatment regime. What if United Health only pays $90,000, but your total treatments run up to $140,000? Does the hospital simply stop the cancer treatments when your tab reaches $90,000? It seems that UnitedHealth is breaking the new law by capping payments in this manner. But, since it's a way to reduce the upward cost curve, HHS will probably give UnitedHealth a big hug and encourage other companies to follow their example. The fact that patients could suffer financially, and/or die un-necessarily, is just a price to pay for achieving the goals of ObamaScare.
-AC