A Blessing and a Curse: Health care reform comes at a steep price

Private insurance policies, which will continue to become more expensive because those companies will no longer be able to spread risk over a large enough number of insured lives, will become too expensive even for the rich. They may not survive as they are today. There will be diminished care through the exchanges, less reimbursement for providers and reduced public access: Yes, you and I will demand universal health care from the government.

The third unintended consequence would be threatened physician survival. To counteract this, be positive, be smart and fight. Merge into larger groups, form partnerships with hospitals and, yes, with insurance companies to cope with unbearable costs. Most importantly, whatever you do, change the way you practice to be more cost effective and deliver higher quality, to ensure that you are on the provider list of the exchanges or ACOs. The actions that have led to these consequences of dramatic change, massive cost burden and threats beg the question, “Were all these really unintended consequences?” ENT TODAY

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