Hopkins is dropping CareFirst

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:thank the greedy doctors and big pharma.

Actually Hopkins doctors don’t get paid much at all.

+1
I used to be one.
I had 10+ years of experience in a speciality with moderate salaries (ie not peds or rheumatology or another low-paying speciality), and made 180K/year working 60-70 hours/week.
Many have family money or a higher-earning spouse.
Couldn’t swing it anymore financially, and left.

Also, because of the structure of medical reimbursement for Maryland Hospitals, costs are more contained in Maryland than in other states.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/24/opinion/maryland-medical-bills-lower.html

Doctors in Maryland actually have fairly low salaries relative to the cost of living.

But the whole system is broken and needs to be burned down and rebuilt.
Essentially every physician I know who is 50 or younger wants single-payrr.
We are all burned out and miserable.

There’s a huge divide between old and young doctors when it comes to single-payer and private practice versus employed positions.

Then in the middle there's a bunch of doctors that had to drop a boatload of money to buy into a practice. And while they might prefer single-payer, they're going to be (understandably) nervous about getting screwed on the return from their buy-in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I doubt we’re getting an accurate story here. Likely some Hopkins-affiliated doctor is threatening to stop being a preferred provider, and wrong a vague email intentionally suggesting Hopkins as a whole was pulling out. That’s not realistic. BCBS is too big, and most of the other private insurance companies don’t reimburse any better.

I have no pity for Hopkins, though. Ever try to transfer a patient there? They won’t tell you whether they have beds until you tell them what insurance the patient has. Funny how they almost always have beds when I have a BCBS patient but they never have beds when I have a Medicaid patient. And their doctors are horrible to work with. UMMC and Georgetown are much better to work with.

Ummm no. Do you realize who sent the email?

Read the post with the email and look up who sent it.

This is huge news and a very bad loss for carefirst holders.

That sounds like a pretty standard letter that a lot of systems and providers send out when preferred provider agreements are being renegotiated. Is it sleazy for Hopkins to do that? Sure. But they’re not the only ones that send those out.

Plenty of other doctors and hospitals around if they somehow went through with their threat. Though again, that’s exceedingly unlikely.

How much the insurance lobby pay you to ruin everyone's lives?

If only I had the money the anesthesiologist’s lobbying organizations throw around.

Go back to your scum barrel, lobbyist.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Carefirst post sounds pretty harsh. Really hope they work it out.

Harsh? It sounds rather calm and measured. I hope they take Hopkins down. I don’t particularly care whether it’s through private insurance companies or a move to a single-payer system, but someone needs to get health care costs under control.

I would rather see CareFirst go down than Hopkins. CareFirst adds zero value in health care.

Does it? Do you want to pay out-of-pocket for health care? I don’t.

Single-payer might be better, but that's not an option right now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Carefirst post sounds pretty harsh. Really hope they work it out.

Harsh? It sounds rather calm and measured. I hope they take Hopkins down. I don’t particularly care whether it’s through private insurance companies or a move to a single-payer system, but someone needs to get health care costs under control.

“Take Hopkins down”…so you’d rather everyone suffer a discontinuity of care? I am also for a single payer system and MD is probably one of the closest use cases to it with its all payer rates that you’d see and this is still happening. I also find it disingenuous that Carefirst says they’re a not for profit company in the very beginning and suggests you call their member services who I find less than helpful most of the time.

Discontinuity of care? Find a new doctor. What would you do if your doctor moved away or retired? Surely you don’t expect insurance companies to write health care systems a blank check.

And fwiw, Carefirst was spectacular when we had a very expensive traumatic medical emergency. I remember being worried when they assigned a case manager to us, figuring it was their job to try to limit follow-up services. Instead, that case manager was incredibly helpful at identifying in-network providers, and personally made sure claims and prior auths were handled quickly. They even waived copays. That didn't end up being a ton of money, since we were within $500 of our out-of-pocket max, but I still appreciated it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Carefirst post sounds pretty harsh. Really hope they work it out.

Harsh? It sounds rather calm and measured. I hope they take Hopkins down. I don’t particularly care whether it’s through private insurance companies or a move to a single-payer system, but someone needs to get health care costs under control.

“Take Hopkins down”…so you’d rather everyone suffer a discontinuity of care? I am also for a single payer system and MD is probably one of the closest use cases to it with its all payer rates that you’d see and this is still happening. I also find it disingenuous that Carefirst says they’re a not for profit company in the very beginning and suggests you call their member services who I find less than helpful most of the time.

Discontinuity of care? Find a new doctor. What would you do if your doctor moved away or retired? Surely you don’t expect insurance companies to write health care systems a blank check.

And fwiw, Carefirst was spectacular when we had a very expensive traumatic medical emergency. I remember being worried when they assigned a case manager to us, figuring it was their job to try to limit follow-up services. Instead, that case manager was incredibly helpful at identifying in-network providers, and personally made sure claims and prior auths were handled quickly. They even waived copays. That didn't end up being a ton of money, since we were within $500 of our out-of-pocket max, but I still appreciated it.

Hail Corporate

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would rather see CareFirst go down than Hopkins. CareFirst adds zero value in health care.

CareFirst made our life a misery when they refused to honor insurance as spelled out in their coverage paperwork. We had no choice but to fight them, and it was a nightmare. I suggest y'all go read what people have to say about them in reviews. They're terrible.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would rather see CareFirst go down than Hopkins. CareFirst adds zero value in health care.

CareFirst made our life a misery when they refused to honor insurance as spelled out in their coverage paperwork. We had no choice but to fight them, and it was a nightmare. I suggest y'all go read what people have to say about them in reviews. They're terrible.

What wouldn’t they cover?

[Anonymous]

This is insane. I just went to see a cardiologist at Hopkins and I’m a fed w/BCBS insurance. How can Hopkins just drop one of the largest insurers in the dc area? I was just starting to look at them for primary care as well since my primary care Dr decided to go concierge (another disgrace w/our healthcare system).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Carefirst post sounds pretty harsh. Really hope they work it out.

Harsh? It sounds rather calm and measured. I hope they take Hopkins down. I don’t particularly care whether it’s through private insurance companies or a move to a single-payer system, but someone needs to get health care costs under control.

I would rather see CareFirst go down than Hopkins. CareFirst adds zero value in health care.

Absolutely. The amount of effort they make physicians go through for prior auths, medication costs, procedure codes, etc is a lot. I have found my physicians are generally willing to help me make cost conscious decisions too but insurance never has.

X1000, Carefirst could care less about its “members.”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Carefirst post sounds pretty harsh. Really hope they work it out.

Harsh? It sounds rather calm and measured. I hope they take Hopkins down. I don’t particularly care whether it’s through private insurance companies or a move to a single-payer system, but someone needs to get health care costs under control.

“Take Hopkins down”…so you’d rather everyone suffer a discontinuity of care? I am also for a single payer system and MD is probably one of the closest use cases to it with its all payer rates that you’d see and this is still happening. I also find it disingenuous that Carefirst says they’re a not for profit company in the very beginning and suggests you call their member services who I find less than helpful most of the time.

Discontinuity of care? Find a new doctor. What would you do if your doctor moved away or retired? Surely you don’t expect insurance companies to write health care systems a blank check.

And fwiw, Carefirst was spectacular when we had a very expensive traumatic medical emergency. I remember being worried when they assigned a case manager to us, figuring it was their job to try to limit follow-up services. Instead, that case manager was incredibly helpful at identifying in-network providers, and personally made sure claims and prior auths were handled quickly. They even waived copays. That didn't end up being a ton of money, since we were within $500 of our out-of-pocket max, but I still appreciated it.

Tell me yiy work for Carefirst without telling me you work for Carefirst,

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When hospitals are billing $2k for a simple ultrasound (I got one on the exact same machine in China for $7) or $3k just to sit in an ER bed for six hours waiting for someone to see you (I did this in Europe for $40 as a non-citizen), the problem is not insurance reimbursement rates. Get your sh*t together Hopkins (and all other healthcare "providers")

OK Mr./Mrs. insurance lobbyist.

They can all be greedy bastards you know.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is insane. I just went to see a cardiologist at Hopkins and I’m a fed w/BCBS insurance. How can Hopkins just drop one of the largest insurers in the dc area? I was just starting to look at them for primary care as well since my primary care Dr decided to go concierge (another disgrace w/our healthcare system).

If they physician rates are so low that it becomes not worth it I guess. I wouldn’t be shocked if this happens with other insurance / physician groups too as inflation makes everything more expensive and I assume doctors want some type of salary increases too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Carefirst post sounds pretty harsh. Really hope they work it out.

Harsh? It sounds rather calm and measured. I hope they take Hopkins down. I don’t particularly care whether it’s through private insurance companies or a move to a single-payer system, but someone needs to get health care costs under control.

I would rather see CareFirst go down than Hopkins. CareFirst adds zero value in health care.

Absolutely. The amount of effort they make physicians go through for prior auths, medication costs, procedure codes, etc is a lot. I have found my physicians are generally willing to help me make cost conscious decisions too but insurance never has.

X1000, Carefirst could care less about its “members.”

Yep. The number of times I’ve called to get estimates on lab work, imaging, minor procedures and not gotten a straightforward answer is baffling when this is supposed to be their job. Lab tech was able to give me an estimate right away and said insurance never knows what they’re doing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:thank the greedy doctors and big pharma.

Actually Hopkins doctors don’t get paid much at all.

+1
I used to be one.
I had 10+ years of experience in a speciality with moderate salaries (ie not peds or rheumatology or another low-paying speciality), and made 180K/year working 60-70 hours/week.
Many have family money or a higher-earning spouse.
Couldn’t swing it anymore financially, and left.

Also, because of the structure of medical reimbursement for Maryland Hospitals, costs are more contained in Maryland than in other states.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/24/opinion/maryland-medical-bills-lower.html

Doctors in Maryland actually have fairly low salaries relative to the cost of living.

But the whole system is broken and needs to be burned down and rebuilt.
Essentially every physician I know who is 50 or younger wants single-payrr.
We are all burned out and miserable.

You don’t think Hopkins underpays in part because they can? I.e., people will take the lower salaries in exchange for the prestige of working there.

I know in other areas of the university, this is definitely the case. They low-ball big time. For the medical center, with all that Bloomberg and Saudi money, how can they be hurting so much?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Carefirst post sounds pretty harsh. Really hope they work it out.

Harsh? It sounds rather calm and measured. I hope they take Hopkins down. I don’t particularly care whether it’s through private insurance companies or a move to a single-payer system, but someone needs to get health care costs under control.

I would rather see CareFirst go down than Hopkins. CareFirst adds zero value in health care.

Absolutely. The amount of effort they make physicians go through for prior auths, medication costs, procedure codes, etc is a lot. I have found my physicians are generally willing to help me make cost conscious decisions too but insurance never has.

X1000, Carefirst could care less about its “members.”

Yep. The number of times I’ve called to get estimates on lab work, imaging, minor procedures and not gotten a straightforward answer is baffling when this is supposed to be their job. Lab tech was able to give me an estimate right away and said insurance never knows what they’re doing.

I have never been able to find out what is reasonable and customary. Black hole.