Georgia Health Insurance 411

Posts Tagged ‘peachcare’

We have updated two resource pages for those looking for information on health and dental insurance in Georgia.

Patient Charity has been a top ranked site for information on charitable programs for low income and uninsured in Georgia. For years it was a stand alone site but was incorporated into my primary site a few months ago. Since the first of the year we have added many more resources for the uninsured and uninsurable in Georgia.

We recently paired with COBRA Insurance to provide the number one resource for COBRA on the web. Their FAQ section has answers to more than 1800 COBRA related question and is indexed and fully searchable.  This inspired us to add our on FAQ section to Georgia Insurance Shop. (More on that later).

At Patient Charity you can find information on taxpayer funded government programs for the poor and uninsured including links to Georgia Peachcare for Kids.

Other points of interest on Patient Charity include:

Healthfinder, a site that points you to clinics that are either free or charge on a sliding scale.

Benefit Checkup where you can learn about government entitlement programs for the poor and aged.

Out of Pocket is one of our favorite sites to look up the cost of common medical procedures.

We just introduced a new Georgia Health Insurance Resource section with links and information specifically for Georgia residents. You can link to the GA DOI (Dept of Insurance) website and find answers to frequently asked questions as well as looking up information on licensed insurance agents. Is the person you are dealing with LICENSED to offer insurance in Georgia or are they just a shyster looking to peddle a sham product?

Many people have COBRA benefits that are expiring and their health prevents them from qualifying for major medical. In the Georgia Health Insurance Resource section you will find a link to the Georgia assignment application including details on plan options and rates. (More information is in our revised FAQ section).

Check out links to Atlanta Community Access Coalition, BRAVE Kids, Babies Can’t Wait, Candlelighters Childrens Cancer Foundation, Georgia Cares, Parent to Parent and more.

We also have information on INSURED plans for those who cannot afford or qualify for traditional major medical insurance. Georgia Core Health is a guaranteed acceptance basic health insurance plan. There are NO HEALTH QUESTIONS, no physical exam. Pair Core Health with Smart Accident Medical, Benicard or Careington Total Care for enhanced coverage as well as discounts on medical, dental, vision and Rx services.

Inspired by COBRA Insurance, we decided to ehance our own FAQ page which will be updated several times a week. As questions are fielded they will be added to the page along with answers to those questions. If you have a question that is not on that page, email us and we will provide a personal answer along with adding it to the page.

The FAQ page will grow daily as new questions arise so check back often.

We hope these additions and changes will prove beneficial to those looking for general information on health care as well those seeking quotes on affordable health insurance in Georgia.

Want to see a Georgia doctor?

Take a number.

This is especially so if you are a new patient, do not have health insurance, have Medicare, Medicaid or PeachCare. So if we are having problems now, what happens when it is free?

Obama administration officials, alarmed at doctor shortages, are looking for ways to increase the number of physicians to meet the needs of an aging population and millions of uninsured people who would gain coverage under legislation championed by the president.

You can’t just push a button and “poof” you have new doctors. It takes years to “grow” a new crop of docs.

One proposal — to increase Medicare payments to general practitioners, at the expense of high-paid specialists — has touched off a lobbying fight.

This is called squeezing the balloon.

Cut reimbursement to one sector to cover the cost of services for another sector. It is also known as robbing Peter to pay Paul.

That has never worked. Why would Obama-man think it will work now? Read the rest of this entry »

Georgia health insurance shoppers wonder if the Massachusetts experiment in universal health care is working.

Define working . . .

According to the WSJ, ER visits in Massachusetts rose by 7% from 2005 to 2007. (The Mass health care experiment began in 2006).

What they don’t know is this. Did ER visits increase because of  the expansion of health insurance or would visits have increased even without Romney Care?

While ER visits increased, the percentage of uninsured remained flat at 15%.

But there is this observation.

many of those in the ER are patients who can’t get in to see their primary-care doctor for a routine complaint. And, as we noted last fall, the increase in insurance coverage in Massachusetts has coincided with longer waits to see primary care doctors and a decline in the number of practices accepting new patients.

This has important implications for the national health-reform push. If you give everyone insurance, there are going to be more people trying to get in to see primary-care doctors – and, perhaps, heading to the emergency room when they can’t get an appointment.

Longer waits for PCP visits.

When something is free demand increases. And no one saw that one coming?

Georgia residents generally don’t have to worry about long waiting lists to schedule an appointment with a PCP . . . unless you have Medicaid or Peachcare. We have many carriers offering competitive rates which means affordable health insurance for most.

Earlier we looked at trauma centers and how they impact Georgia residents, health care and health insurance in Georgia. As a follow up to that post we want to look at Georgia PeachCare funding and quality of care. PeachCare is under-funded, even with Santa Claus delivering bags of money via the Spendulus bill. So how do we fix that problem? Impose a sin tax.

“A one-dollar-a-pack increase in state cigarette tax would reduce teen smoking, help fund the state’s tobacco-prevention-and-cessation program to the level recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, protect children on PeachCare and Georgians who rely on Medicaid.”

Read the rest of this entry »

Funding for Georgia health care is about to change. Money is tight. Every where. Especially at the state and federal level although you would not know Washington has gone beyond their last dime based on how they have spent money they don’t have over the last 6 months or so.

But that is another story.

Let’s talk about Georgia.

Even with Santa Claus handing out bags full of money from Washington via the Spendulus bill, Georgia is still coming up short on funding for PeachCare. And eventually even the idiots in Washington will realize they can’t keep funding projects when they can’t balance their checkbook. So Georgia is going to have to address funding for all programs, including entitlement’s, on their own. Read the rest of this entry »

It seems Obamaman will push ahead with a desire to revamp health care in America as part of his budget proposals. According to the Washington Post, the President wants to start with Medicare and Medicaid.

Making policy changes in those programs — such as rewarding physicians who computerize their medical records or paying doctors for results rather than procedures–could improve care while generating long-term savings, expert say.

Computerization, or converting to EHR (electronic health records) is something that has been discussed for 20 years or so. There are numerous problems, not the least of which is compatibility in software and database programs.

And as we know, the internet is not secure making PHI (personal health records) a potential nightmare.

Paying doctors for results instead of procedures is nice in theory but has no practical application in our society. Much of the testing is redundant as a precaution against future litigation. If the government tells a doc you will not be paid unless your service generates a positive result then the doctor is torn between getting paid and protecting against future suits.

And just who decides if the care is effective?

If the government decides the treatment did nothing favorable is the patient then given a clear path to sue the doctor?

This is a slippery slope from which there may be no good answers.

And what happens if, as we have seen with PeachCare, the number of providers willing to see Medicare/Medicaid patients erodes even further? If you are covered by either of these programs and cannot find a doctor willing to treat you, then what?

This is a real can of worms.

PeachCare is the Georgia version of SCHIP . . . the State Children’s Health Insurance Plan. PeachCare is funded through taxpayer dollars, with roughly a third coming from federal taxes.

In addition to medical care, the PeachCare plan cover’s dental benefits for qualified children up to age 18. In addition to funding issues, Peachare (and any other taxpayer funded health care plans) face major hurdles for accessability.

Many providers are refusing to service PeachCare/Medicaid patients due to the low reimbursement rates. In 1999 roughly 260 dentists accepted PeachCare/Medicaid as a form of payment. The state agreed to increase reimbursement rates which led to an increase to 1800 dental providers over the next few years.

That number is now down to less than 600 participating dental providers.

Every time a PeachCare/Medicaid patient is treated, the dental provider loses money unless they are running some kind of scam. Georgia is not the only state with disappearing providers. Here is a letter to the editor from a dentist in California. Read the rest of this entry »