Some health care providers and pharmacies are needing to close clinics/offices/hospitals due to low reimbursement rates from Medicaid/Medicare?
Has anyone been asked to find a different provider because of their insurance?
What would help resolve this issue?
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I have not heard of clinics closing because of low reimbursement rates. Many close because the volume lowered a ton after Covid. Also many more people had insurance during Covid because of the temporary laws passed. So now that the volume is much lower, they are not able to survive. Keep in mind most clinics and hospitals are for profit. Those that are not for profit still have to pay the bills. Pharmacies are closing because they can’t get the staff to man them all. The actual Walgreens, for example, have the same hours but the pharmacist are not there as late as they used to be.
I’m wondering if it is small pharmacies - “mom and pop stores” that are shutting their doors? Also insurance plans have certain pharmacy providers they want or require their members to use - typically the giants such as CVS, Rite Aid, etc. CVS has closed some pharmacies in my area as they had low performance (they weren’t busy enough to be profitable I guess) and I had to move my mefd to another location. I wasn’t happy about it, but I would rather have to change pharmacies than physicians.
In the upper Midwest a hospital closed because of too high a proportion of Medicaid patients. Smaller pharmacies say they are closing because of the high health insurance costs for employees. In rural areas many hospitals, clinics, and pharmacies have closed or are closing.
Costco is offering prescriptions by mail. The local Costco doesn’t want me to fill my prescriptions using their mail order service. lt will hurt the local pharmacy and possibly result in it closing. I’d like to receive all of my medications at one location, but I have to currently order the insulin from a different pharmacy. It is frustrating to have to go to multiple pharmacies to keep my med costs down.