Doctors Think Emergency Room Visits Are Going To Explode Under Obamacare

[DigitalDrifter]

Great.

One of the major selling points of the Affordable Care Act was its theoretical potential to reduce costly emergency room visits, given the law's access to coverage.

But a new survey shows that so far under the healthcare law, more people are going to the emergency room. The survey, conducted by the American College of Emergency Physicians, found that since Jan. 1 — the day coverage went into effect for millions of Americans — 46% of emergency physicians have experienced jumps in patients. Half that percentage reported a decrease, and 27% of physicians said the influx has stayed about the same.

And even though it was one of the points President Barack Obama and Democrats used to sell the law ahead of its passage, doctors said they've been expecting this all along.

"We told you this was going to happen. We don't mind that it has. But we'd sure appreciate some support," Howard Mell, a spokesman for the ACEP and an emergency care physician, told Business Insider on Wednesday.

Emergency physicians only expect it to get worse over the next few years. Eighty-six percent of emergency physicians expect there to be a slight or "great" increase in the amount of visits to their departments over the next three years. Moreover, 77% of these doctors think their facilities are not prepared for the expected influx of patients.

Emergency care physicians also expect payments for ER visits to sharply reduce. They think access to emergency care will improve overall, but that doesn't mean quality care will follow — a plurality of emergency physicians expect the ACA to have a negative effect on quality and patient safety.

Part of the increase can be expected. Emergency room use is a covered benefit, and when people get insurance, the use of those benefits would be expected to increase somewhat.





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American College of Emergency Physicians

But here's the problem: Though the healthcare law has helped get more people insured, it doesn't guarantee care. ACEP says there is an overall shortage of primary care doctors.

Many of the millions who qualified for coverage under the expansion of the federal Medicaid program could also be out of luck, since many primary care doctors do not accept Medicaid patients. Because Medicaid coverage pays so little, it is the main problem, whereas more than 8 million people signed up for private insurance through exchanges established by the law.

The Obama administration said the study comes too soon to draw any long-term conclusions.

"This survey, looking at only the first three months of coverage, cannot speak to the long-term effects of expanded coverage, which will be shaped by our continuing efforts to help people use their new primary care and preventive care benefits and to invest in innovative approaches aimed at improving our nation’s system of primary care," a Department of Health and Human Services told Business Insider in a statement.

Still, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges, there will be a shortage of about 30,000 too few primary care physicians to keep up with patient demand next year. And the problem is expected to grow — over the next decade, according to the study, primary care physicians will rise by only 7%.

Combined with the fact the American population is getting older — a 36% increase in the American population over 65 — ACEP is warning the U.S. is on something of a "collision course."

"Emergency visits will increase in large part because more people will have health insurance and therefore will be seeking medical care," said Alex Rosenau , the president of ACEP.

"But America has severe primary care physician shortages, and many physicians do not accept Medicaid patients, because Medicaid pays so low. When people can't get appointments with physicians, they will seek care in emergency departments. In addition, the population is aging, and older people are more likely to have chronic medical conditions that require emergency care."

A classic example of where the problem continues to manifest is with a patient who has asthma but waits until an emergency to seek coverage. As Mell explains, a primary care doctor should be able to solve the health problem in its infancy — for example, prescribing an inhaler to an asthma-inflicted patient. Instead, the patient will wait until they have an asthma attack. That means $50-$100 worth of medicine becomes thousands of dollars in emergency care.

Some health-policy experts think much of the increase can be mitigated by educating patients about their healthcare options. Many people who just gained insurance for the first time are simply used to routinely going to the emergency room for their healthcare needs.

" Part of the need in this new environment is to teach people who have not had insurance at all or very often in the past how best to use it and the best ways to access care," said Linda Blumberg, a senior fellow at the Urban Institute. "That is, they need help to understand the importance of identifying and using a usual source of care outside of the ER for non emergent situations."

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/doctors-think-emergency-room-visits-165000553.html

 

[ShootSpeeders]

Hospitals could handle the increase in ER care for citizens if congress would change the law that says ERs must give free treatment to illegals.

 

[jillian]

more people are going to the emergency room because they have insurance.

no doubt you think they should die

 

[Katzndogz]

People with decent insurance go to doctors for routine care, not emergency rooms. Of course emergency room visits will explode under obamacare. There are no doctors willing to provide routine care.

 

[WelfareQueen]

The expansion of medicaid exploded ER visits. Why: Because medicaid people generally have nothing (including a car). So if they need a ride to the doctor they call 911 and get an ambulance transport for free to the ER that generally costs around $500 versus paying to take the bus to a regular doctor.

 

[DriftingSand]

Everyone has probably already seen this video but it reflects what America has to look forward to. It's a peak into Canada's version of "Obamacare" and the utter quagmire that Socialized Medicine creates. There's humor to the video but it also reveals the truly nonsensical direction we're headed:

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2jijuj1ysw]ObamaCare Yay Or Nay? The Truth About Canada! - YouTube[/ame]

 

[The Rabbi]

more people are going to the emergency room because they have insurance.

no doubt you think they should die

Poor ignorant thing.
One of Obamacare's selling points was the uninsured people would go to relatively inexpensive doctors instead of more expensive ERs.
I guess that was a lie too.

 

[boedicca]

more people are going to the emergency room because they have insurance.

no doubt you think they should die

More people are going to emergency rooms because the doctor networks for ObamaCare are teeny tiny. They can't get regular appointments because they couldn't keep the Doctor They Liked under The Plan They Liked.

Hopenchange!

 

[Mr. H.]

more people are going to the emergency room because they have insurance.

no doubt you think they should die

Poor ignorant thing.
One of Obamacare's selling points was the uninsured people would go to relatively inexpensive doctors instead of more expensive ERs.
I guess that was a lie too.

Yesterday I visited with an ER Tech friend (he's recovering from surgery). He said they've been swamped with folks seeking attention for anything from a common cold to nosebleeds. More often than not, they bring in their extended families also demanding that they be seen.

ER's do have a type of "triage" system, and unless it's an especially slow day (as in never) you're going to wait for hours to get attention to your sniffles.

 

[aaronleland]

The expansion of medicaid exploded ER visits. Why: Because medicaid people generally have nothing (including a car). So if they need a ride to the doctor they call 911 and get an ambulance transport for free to the ER that generally costs around $500 versus paying to take the bus to a regular doctor.

After my mother passed away the hospital sent us a bill for $900 for the ambulance. I couldn't help but laugh. It was addressed to her. I told them she'd pay it when she has the time.

 

[hipeter924]

Everyone has probably already seen this video but it reflects what America has to look forward to. It's a peak into Canada's version of "Obamacare" and the utter quagmire that Socialized Medicine creates. There's humor to the video but it also reveals the truly nonsensical direction we're headed:

ObamaCare Yay Or Nay? The Truth About Canada! - YouTube

Because public health insurance is a nonsense, and realistically is no substitute for either a national health service or a private healthcare system. The Affordable Care Act is only partially effective in providing health care coverage, as it still exists under the pay for healthcare, rather than pay for healthcare in taxation model i.e. under universal healthcare everyone gets free medical treatment in public hospitals, and ideally everything is subsidized to the point it makes healthcare affordable.

If the goal is full coverage then the ACA will fail, if the goal is lower healthcare costs then it will obviously fail (as instead of one nationwide standard of healthcare, you have healthcare based on the amount you pay for your healthcare plan), and the ACA still leaves people uncovered for very complex and expensive operations.

 

[Katzndogz]

more people are going to the emergency room because they have insurance.

no doubt you think they should die

Poor ignorant thing.
One of Obamacare's selling points was the uninsured people would go to relatively inexpensive doctors instead of more expensive ERs.
I guess that was a lie too.

There are no doctors. That's what everyone said would happen. The doctors are not accepting exchange patients like they didn't accept Medicaid patients.

 

[The Rabbi]

more people are going to the emergency room because they have insurance.

no doubt you think they should die

Poor ignorant thing.
One of Obamacare's selling points was the uninsured people would go to relatively inexpensive doctors instead of more expensive ERs.
I guess that was a lie too.

There are no doctors. That's what everyone said would happen. The doctors are not accepting exchange patients like they didn't accept Medicaid patients.

Obviously some are. But they will be relatively few trying to service many patients. The result will be wait times to see the doctor stretching months.
I.E. health care rationing. Gee, just like the smart people predicted, right?