no matter what one thinks about OC, all of us today are just a little bit less free than we were before Tuesday. One Dr., who i suspect will not be the last, makes her choice. [rquoter]My Dear Patient, As you must know, Congress has just passed extensive legislation governing health care delivery and insurance systems. Whether you agree with what it does or not, we are all now subject to this law and its sweeping changes. I have always conducted my medical practice with my patient’s best interests as my first priority. Although not legally obliged to do so, I have routinely provided you with a receipt that has all the codes necessary to bill your own health insurance company for any reimbursement to which you are entitled. Until now, that insurance company was a free enterprise despite the fact that it was heavily regulated by state and federal laws. Now the situation is quite different. Through the new law’s mandates, regulatory powers and reform, health insurance is and will be largely a government activity which will have an ever larger jurisdiction over how doctors practice, make clinical judgments and are paid. The new law provides for about 150 new government agencies, many of which are designed to be ‘oversight’ bureaucracies which will have the right to decide what medical care is legal to provide through insurance. Among other things, they will have the right to review my medical care of you and read your medical record. Now, as soon as you submit our economic transaction to your insurance company for reimbursement, you have involved me in these regulations and put me in the jurisdiction of government for my activities, decisions and behavior as your doctor. No one can have two masters. Either I can serve you as my patient or I can serve the government. Either I can continue to make your welfare and health my only concern, including the protection of your privacy and medical records, or I can abide by ever-increasing amounts of government regulations and dictates to my decisions. I can’t do both. I choose to continue to follow my conscience and practice medicine to serve you. For this reason, I am responding to the situation created by this new law by exercising my right not to participate in any health insurance program. I will still provide you with the same medical services that I always have, but the interaction will be exclusively and privately between you and me. This means that I will provide you only with a receipt for the services you have paid for, but without the additional information that is required to submit your receipt for reimbursement to your health insurance company. That is the only way I can make sure there will be no conflict between following the law and serving you. Because the law is now in effect, so must these changes be to my practice. Sincerely, Linda Johnston, MD[/rquoter]
She better hope she is one hell of a great doctor. If she is not, she will not have many patients left.
so how does she expect to be paid. shes not billing insurance so does she expect clients to pay cash? Sorry I skimmed the letter
of all the things to post in response to different issues, I always find the lone letter by the lone individual the most ridiculous of all
so, in a society where we are all just a little less free, this doctor has the freedom to opt out of insurance all together? i'm confused.
You would think a doctor wouldn't be so clueless about how her own business and health insurance are run.
Dear Dr. Johnston, kudos to you. Please also post your services and fees. Sincerely, An Audience to Your Public Posting
So wait, as an advocate of freedom, she essentially is denying her patients the very thing her conscience pains her about?
To be honest, it just sounds like instead of letting the government screw her over, she'll just pass that on to her patients who get screwed over by not being able to reimbursement (I want to know how the first step happens though).
1 libertarian Dr that practices Homeopathy down... http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig3/johnston1.html She also interviews Ron Paul here... http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig3/johnston6.html It's not like she was unbiased to begin with. Let the animal pictures begin!!
It's the free market at work. If she doesn't want to participate, she's able to opt out. The free market also will put her out of business, but that's part of open competition.
Dear patient, I care about you. I have always provided great care. However, because I feel the government becoming intrusive, I will make the decision to make your healthcare more expensive to prove a point. You should blame the government, not my political ideologies. Sincerely, Dishonest Doctor
I don't get it. How can she expect to make more money this way? Seems like an act of career suicide, really. Unless she gets on Fox News and ends up going all Sarah "Hollywood" Palin on us.
