Medicaid is slow pay, low pay or no pay and only desperate or mandated providers accept it

Whenever I've sought treatment from a new doctor I've asked if they accept Medicaid. If they say yes I thank them and try another.

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Why exactly? Honestly curious.

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I'm going to sound like a bitch but I'll tell you exactly why.
I don't want to sit around listening to trashy people talk about trashy things while their horrible children rip leaves off plants,and destroy waiting room books (or toys).
My husband makes a lot of money, we have excellent insurance (but pay cash for many visits), and I want the best possible care.

I like nice offices, friendly staff and physicians who aren't dealing with the dregs all day.

I work in a hospital and that certainly is an interesting perspective. I'll ask some of the doctors I work with if they notice this.

Congratulations! :)

Nice,clean,offices are usually a dead give away.

Top pediatric neurologist in this state accepts Medicaid. You're an idiot.

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don't want to sit around listening to trashy people talk about trashy things while their horrible children rip leaves off plants,and destroy waiting room books (or toys).

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So you ignore medical qualifications for organized magazines. F'ing genius

From my experience I don't know about the slow pay and no pay, but low pay is spot on. I have worked for a Federaly Qualified Health Center and I now work for a hospital. Vast difference in allowed amounts between the two. Hospital owned, and what's left of private practice, receive very little. FQHCs actually receive quite a bit more and their rates are mostly based off of their annual cost reports.

As you can imagine this leads to a degree of rigging the system, higher cost (cost of care, not billed charge) centers get higher reimbursements because the higher cost is supposed to be direct to patient care. IMO a lot of this wasteful spending though. FQHCs are expected to and do more for their patients than a typical medical practice, the argument is whether they do enough more to justify the difference in reimbursement.

Personally I think the answer lies in the middle. Typical medical practices receive far lower reimbursements from Medicaid than they do private insurance and even Medicare. FQHCs on the other hand receive a good deal more from Medicaid per visit than private insurance in most cases. Meeting in the middle on this dichotomy would save a ton of money for the system while offering more choices in medical care for Medicaid patients.

If you take call at a ER, you have to take Medicaid. I don't see how many docs can avoid it .

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Looks like you missed the rest of my post.

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No. You did. I just told you the top pediatric neurologist in the state accepts Medicaid.

Your own words tell us you would stay out of his office because he accepts Medicaid.

Hate to break this too you, sweetie. Should your child need neurological help, your husband's money is being wasted away by your ignorance.

Yeah ER is a different ball game. It's unavoidable there given the legal rights of the patient.