Kids' Docs Back Away from All Kids
Just to make sure that my sick 9-year old, who missed four days of school and an entire weekend, didn’t have a bacterial infection, we were off to one of his pediatricians Monday.
He didn’t have strep throat and is now back in school, but I did pick up something of interest at the doctors’ office.
It was this notice.
Billed as an “All Kids Update,” the notice, "Effective October 1, 2006," basically says if patients have private insurance, All Kids will not be accepted for payment.
“If your child is covered by a commercial insurance carrier AND All Kids (previously Kid Care and Medicaid), Pediatric Specialists of the Northwest will no longer submit claims to All Kids.
“Any balance not covered by your commercial carrier will be your responsibility to pay.
“Please direct you questions to the Billing Department” and the phone number is given.
This was seen in the office north of Barrington, but I assume it is also in the group's Crystal Lake office.
Always more at McHenry County Blog.
9 comments:
Wait a minute, there must be some kind of mistake. The governor's name isn't on this All Kids poster.
Aw, anon 1:02...you stole my line.
Is this a surprise for anybody? People, like sheep, will believe the hype until it's time for them to actually try to use All Kids.
Maybe the poster should add,
"Governor Blagojevich failed to mention not many physicians take this plan".
Not many insurance cos appreciate folks who have double-coverage. And for doctors the paperwork can eat up precious resources among their support staff.
This is actually no surprise, but I'm not surprised to see you thought the worst of it.
(Cal, do you carry a camera with you everywhere you go?)
do you carry a camera with you everywhere you go
A lot of people do. In their cell phones. More and more 2, 3 MP cameras in phones these days.
I sat through a presentation at a parents night at my childs school about All Kids. I thought it was only going to be a part of an evening on childrens health issues, it was the only topic, took about 25 minutes.
The person sent by the state to tell us about the program, a young female, possibly just out of college (intern?), said she new it could be difficult raising kids, heck she was still," raising myself." She answered some questions with,"they didn't go over that with us in our class - I'll get your contact info and get back to you on that." When asked about whether all kids was more like an hmo or ppo, she said she really didn't "know the difference between them."
I was amazed when looking at the handouts that all kids can be bought by anyone. Even if you make $11,000 a month or more for $300 a month you could purchase All Kids for your child. Now I would really hope that someone making $132,000 a year could afford health insurance without going to the state for it, or would be getting some coverage from their job. I thought All Kids was mainly for those less fortunate, that it was to mean so all kids, would have health coverage, not all kids in illinois could be covered by the state for insurance.
It appears that the Blgojevich Department of Health and Families, as I predicted, is taking people at their word when they lie and say their kids don't currently have coverage and haven't had it for a year. There is no true eligibility screening in other words
And apparently many people are using Allkids as a means of enhancing the family budget. Use Allkids where you can get away with it, as it's cheaper and covers everything free. Use your regular policy as a backup when Allkids won't pay.
Meanwhile, in Illinois, there are about 1.8 million uninsured adults, many of them young people in their 20's and 30's.
So much for the Blagojevich nanny state. Another taxpayer ripoff.
These are physician groups in affluent areas of the state that do not want a Medicaid clientele--they should be forced to take ALLKIDS patients.
People on Medicaid are allowed to have private insurance.
You get reimbursed for the cost of private insurance. But you can only make up to medicaid limits to qualify for this rebate program.
And All Kids is ALL KIDS. If you make a lot, you pay a lot in premiums. Those people can pay the high premiums if they want, why should anyone stop them? The state isn't subsidizing them at that level.
Allkids was presented as a program for families without health insurance. Presumably, if you had to be without health insurance for a year to get it, the intent was not to allow recipients to use it as supplemental insurance.
And I doubt even at the highest levels, premiums cover costs. In fact, there is not even a formal process for
dropping those who fail to pay premiums. Soon, Allkids will be free for all, when recipients figure out that they
can get away without paying.
Post a Comment