U.S. Government Announces An Undercover Sting Operation Against Family Care Doctors

June 27, 2011
The Boston Globe reports today that “Alarmed by a shortage of primary care doctors, Obama administration officials are recruiting a team of “mystery shoppers’’ to pose as patients, call doctors’ offices, and request appointments to see how difficult it is for people to get care when they need it.

“The administration says the survey will address a “critical public policy problem’’: the increasing shortage of primary care doctors, including specialists in internal medicine and family practice.”

“It will also try to discover whether doctors are accepting patients with private insurance while turning away those in government health programs that pay lower reimbursement rates.”


“Federal officials expect more than 30 million Americans to gain coverage under the health care law passed last year. “These newly insured Americans will need to seek out new primary care physicians, further exacerbating the already growing problem of PCP shortages in the United States,’’ the Department of Health and Human Services said in a description of the project that it submitted to the White House.”

So now we know the truth behind the shortage of primary care physicians. It’s not government incompetence and reimbursement rates in programs like Medicare and Medicaid that are so low that they don’t even cover the doctor’s costs. It’s a secret conspiracy by the doctors to block access to care. And what better solution to stop this evil practice, than an undercover spy operation to break up this clandestine cabal.

“The government is eager to know whether doctors’ offices give different answers to callers depending on whether they have public insurance, like Medicaid, or private insurance, like Blue Cross and Blue Shield.”

According to the Globe article.
The Globe reports that “In a recent study, the Massachusetts Medical Society found that 53 percent of family physicians and 51 percent of internal medicine physicians were not accepting new patients. When new patients could get appointments, they faced long waits, averaging 36 days to see family doctors and 48 days for internists.”
“In the mystery shopper survey, administration officials said, a federal contractor will call the offices of 4,185 doctors — 465 in each of nine states: Florida, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Mexico, North Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and West Virginia. The doctors will include pediatricians and obstetrician-gynecologists.”
In other words, our government is setting up an undercover “sting” operation to go after the lowest paid, most demanding, and most needed medical specialists. What a brilliant strategy to solve the PCP shortage. In medicine

“Plans for the survey have riled many doctors because the secret shoppers will not identify themselves as working for the government.”


“In response to the drumbeat of criticism, a federal health official... requested anonymity to discuss the plan before its final approval by the White House.”
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2011/06/27/secret_survey_to_gauge_doctor_access/


© Copyright 2011 Globe Newspaper Company.
I think this is known in the Obama administration as “transparency”. "Mystery shoppers"  what a benign euphemism for using KGB style spying tactics to try to shift the blame for the PCP shortage to the docs that have already chosen to be PCP's"

Suggestion:
To further enhance the government’s efforts to solve the “critical public policy problem’’: the increasing shortage of primary care doctors, including specialists in internal medicine and family practice.” I recommend that our government place posters in medical schools across the U.S. saying: “Uncle Sam wants you to be a family practice physician: Benefits include pay so low that you’ll still be paying of your medical school tuition loans when you retire and you get the added advantage of being under secret surveillance by your government”

Bob O'Toole, President of Informed Eldercare Decisions, Inc is the editor of this blog.
Your comments are welcome as long as they are not "anonymous"
Bob can be reached at bob@elderlifeplanning.com