Effects of New Health Care Bill in Outpatient Clinics

While Washington is caucusing over the new health care bill, we are busy running a mid-size practice that may be most effected by possible policy changes.  As a small business we could be forced into offering additional insurance coverage for employees who are not full time.  In addition to these added expenditures, revenue may be squeezed by the possibility of lower payments for services rendered.  Many businesses like ours are in a ‘wait-and-see’ mode as to what effect a public plan will have on their businesses as a whole.  I am worried that our expenses will increase while our revenue decreases - the ultimate double whammy.

The prospect of having more American’s covered with medical insurance sounds like a boon to any medical practice.  The fear of a state run health plan is that it will pay at or near Medicare rates.  This fear is compounded by the fact that Medicare payments will be cut by 21% in January.  A public plan that pays the same as the new proposed Medicare rates would not help our business at all, as the payments could be well below our break-even point.  The only way to break even would to have therapists see more patients per day.  Although this may be the route for some outpatient clinics, our focus is quality care.  We just need to find a way to keep the business going with the possible changes.

I am closely watching the happenings in Washington and am hopelessly short of good solid advice for how proposed changes could affect our practice.