Regarding Co-Payments

Patient co-payments for general practice.

good for patients and a tool for promoting practice federation, the key to modernising primary care. Combining this with a clamp on primary care funding appears illogical but ensures that more and more partners will be replaced by assistants until partnerships become neither viable nor identifiable. When partners themselves demand a salaried service, no doubt to be managed by private healthcare...

Co-payments for health care: what is their real cost?

Based on the premise that current trends in healthcare spending are unsustainable, the Australian Government has proposed in the recent Budget the introduction of a compulsory $7 co-payment to visit a General Practitioner (GP), alongside increased medication copayments. This paper is based on a recent submission to the Senate Inquiry into the impact of out-of-pocket costs in Australia. It is ba...

Statement of the Declaration of Istanbul Custodian Group Regarding Payments to Families of Deceased Organ Donors.

Governmental and private programs that pay next of kin who give permission for the removal of their deceased relative's organs for transplantation exist in a number of countries. Such payments, which may be given to the relatives or paid directly for funeral expenses or hospital bills unrelated to being a donor, aim to increase the rate of donation. The Declaration of Istanbul Custodian Group-i...

No such thing as a multiple of RBRVS. Acronym widely misunderstood regarding Medicare physician payments.

Discounting or waiving patient co-payments and deductibles--an overview primer.

Where a provider is excluded from a managed care payor network, patients are often required to pay a much higher “out-of-network” co-payment if they choose to be treated at such provider. In such a case, it may be viewed as a potential kickback, insurance fraud or grounds for disciplinary action against a physician to waive the co-payment, co-insurance or deductible.1 Further, a provider’s waiv...