Business owners are worried that Obama's potential healthcare plan will cost them too much money. And, if the medical business stays as is, I can see their point. All those different health care companies requiring different paperwork and I wonder if the overhead is going to be the real killer.
A few weeks ago I severely sprained my ankle (couldn't walk far etc) so I went to my primary care doctor. He looked at my foot for a few minutes and gave me referrals for an xray and orthopedic doctor. I spent more time with the woman at the desk as she wrote up the referrals then I did with the doctor.
First, she had to get the book of participating doctors for my health care plan out of a large pile of books. Then, she had to find a local doctor. Then she had to find the right forms to write out the referrals (that only took a few seconds). Then she had to fill them out.
When I went to the radiologist for the x-ray (walk in) and the orthopedic doctor (couldn't get an appointment for 10 days), their staff had to retype in all the information to their computers. The orthopedic doctor gave me a referral for physical therapy, so the staff for the PT had to refill in all my paperwork.
Ultimately all 4 offices will submit 4 individual claims (though the PT might be for each visit) which will be reviewed at 4 separate times and be paid on 4 separate times. Eventually all 4 of the offices I visited will send the checks to whoever does their billing so the accounts are all squared. Whew. I'm tired.
With the exception of PT, I spent perhaps 20 minutes with two doctors and one x-ray technician. All the paperwork took much longer than that. Something is not right there.
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