The Biden administration is trying to persuade the country to support Obamacare as part of their reelection bid. The so-called advantages of Obamacare are being promoted by the Biden administration.Before continuing to promote Obamacare, they should consider the challenges faced by doctors' offices struggling with payroll.
For more than a month, the health care sector has been dealing with a hack on a payment processor owned by UnitedHealthGroup, the largest insurer in the country. Axios Hospitals, doctors, medical equipment suppliers, and pharmacies are collectively losing as much as $1 billion a day, due in part to industry consolidation influenced by Obamacare. This industry consolidation sparked by Obamacare may worsen the problem.The situation may be exacerbated by the chaos caused by the industry consolidation influenced by Obamacare.
Is it a case of being too big to fail again?
Setting aside the fact that Change Health Care reportedly paid $22 million to the ransomware group behind the hack, the real issue stems from the size and reach of the network that was hacked. Reportedly, Change Health Care paid $22 million to the ransomware group behind the hack, potentially encouraging future cyberattacks on health care entities. Change Health Care reportedly paid $22 million to the ransomware group behind the hack, potentially fueling future cyberattacks on health care organizations.
Change Health Care processes the most medical claims per year, exceeding any other organization in the country. processes 15 billion Processing over 41 million medical claims per day, Change Health Care's extensive reach is deeply embedded in the health care system.
The backlog in processing payments is causing financial challenges for doctors and hospitals, as patients and pharmacists struggle with insurance processing and out-of-pocket payments.
This situation may lead to further consolidation in the health care industry.
How did the nation's largest health insurer acquire such a crucial payment processor?
Obamacare has incentivized the merging and combining of hospitals, insurers, and physician offices, promoting market dominance rather than improved patient care. The drive to gain market share and leverage in the health sector has led hospitals, insurers, and physician offices to merge and combine.This competition is not centered on providing better patient care, but rather on gaining market share and influence in the health sector. noted UnitedHealth is under scrutiny by the Justice Department for potential antitrust violations related to its ownership of physician groups.
The Justice Department investigation is examining whether UnitedHealth's ownership of physician groups impacts the favoritism towards its insurance products, going beyond concerns about owning the largest health care payment processor.
Smaller practices are particularly affected by these challenges.
While the intrusion and its far-reaching results have caused UnitedHealth its own set of political and legal problems, the real burden will be felt by the small medical practices that have maintained their independence as larger companies have developed around them over the last decade or more. Take this into account excerpt from a Moody’s analysis of the hack’s effects:
Providers with small scale, a weak financial profile, who only use Change and have little headroom in meeting debt covenants stand to suffer the most from the disruption. … Larger providers with more resources are in a better position to weather cash flow difficulties.
Considering this kind of situation with doctors unsure if they can cover their practice’s payroll and possibly needing to take out personal loans to pay their employees, do you think it makes these independent doctors more or less likely to want to (or need to) sell their practices in the coming years? The answer seems clear.
In short, as much as the Change hack’s implications are a sign of consolidation within the health care sector, the situation seems likely to become even more difficult. And as the health care industry continues to expand, the demand for taxpayer-funded bailouts will increase the next time a crisis occurs. Don’t say you haven’t been warned.
