On 1/4/2010 11:15 AM, Roy Witt wrote:

> A Medicare patient can go to any specialist recommended by his regular
> doctor. A PPO or HMO patient must use the insurance company's plan doctors
> and specialists.

While I agree with HMO, at least that's how it worked when I was with 
Kaiser back in the 70's.  My current health insurance only "penalizes" 
us for not using a PPO.

As an aside for the medicare.  In Anchorage the newspaper reported less 
than 80 GP's willing to take "new" medicare patients, and most were 
willing to grandfather their "old" patients in if they could.  The 
excuse was that medicare payments were inadequate for them to maintain 
their practice, and as you know medicare providers aren't allowed to 
directly bill patients to cover that deficit.  Which is why we've 
developed a patient relationship with some specialists, which almost 
exclusively exclude new medicare patients.  At least I've not heard of 
one that would.  Here in Arizona it was reported last week that the Mayo 
Clinic in Scottsdale was going to start refusing medicare patients. 
That's the future of medical care in the US: If you have medical 
insurance or cash you get service.
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