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They choose to accept the rates Medicare offers. When one party offers an amount for a second party's services, and the second party accepts, they have just est
by seehafer 15y ago
They choose to accept the rates Medicare offers. When one party offers an amount for a second party's services, and the second party accepts, they have just established the market rate for that transaction.
Not when second party holds a monopoly on a certain patient population, as does Medicare for the elderly. The healthcare market is so distorted by government intervention that calling anything a true 'market rate' is laughable.
- mbreese 15y agoDoctors don't have to serve that patient population... they choose to. (It is a huge % of the market though) It's not medicare, but there have been instances where hospital systems have dropped (or threatened to drop) medicaid because accepting and dealing with it became too onerous.
- dpark 15y agoHow much of the patient population does Aetna have a "monopoly" on? How about Keiser? Medicare most certainly does not have a monopoly on healthcare. Not for any reasonable definition of "monopoly". And again, doctors do not have to accept Medicare. It doesn't matter how "monopolistic" Medicare is. There's no force that makes doctors accept it. They can simply decline to accept Medicare just as they can Aetna. If Aetna pays below the rate a doctor is willing to accept, then they simply don't work with Aetna. The same applies to Medicare.