Your health is for sale
Dr. Casey Herrforth speaks the truth in her letter, “Begging for help” (Tribune-Herald, Feb. 28).
We in the medical profession bear witness to the heartbreak daily when we are unable to provide our communities with the medical care needed.
But the important question becomes why are we unable to provide these vital services to our community? Why are there limited specialists, so few primary care physicians and no new physicians here to replace the retiring doctors?
Here in Hawaii, much of our landscape is rural, and our rural communities are medically served by solo physician practices. These medical practices keep our Hawaii healthy and need to remain financially viable in order to do so.
HMSA’s capitated payment transformation pays primary care an average of $24 per month. Studies show that high-quality, comprehensive primary care requires reimbursement of $45-$64 per month — TWICE the rate of reimbursement from HMSA.
HMSA’s fee for service reimbursements (alternative to payment transformation) has not changed significantly since 2008, while minimum wage increased 39 percent. With these substandard reimbursements, it is impossible for a physician’s practice to remain financially viable here in Hawaii.
These reimbursement rates average out to $33.05 per hour. That doesn’t include time “on call” for emergencies after hours, and from this $33.05 the physician still needs to pay for office and medical supplies such as bandages, printer paper, syringes, ink, medications, etc.
Physicians want to be here, but more are leaving because an altruistic nature cannot overrule the primary need to provide for one’s family. No matter how much someone wants to donate their time, we still need to get paid a livable wage.
We as physicians have fought for you, our community, for years. It is illegal for the physicians to band together to stand up against an insurance company. Federal antitrust laws prohibit physicians from having any form of agreement that has the intent to alter price (also known as price-fixing). However, the McCarran-Ferguson Act exempts insurances from such antitrust laws, leaving the bargaining power tipped squarely on one side.
Your health is on the line. The health of your family, your friends, your community.
You have the power here. Not the physicians. Not the insurance company. You — the patient, the consumer. The future of your health care is in your hands.
Michelle Mitchell, M.D.
President, Hawaii Family Health Inc.
Hirono’s ‘potty mouth’
Being born and raised in Hawaii, I find it rude and unacceptable how our Sen. Mazie Hirono is behaving.
Her disrespect for our President Donald Trump, America and our honored veterans at the president’s State of the Union address was an embarrassment to Hawaii, no matter your party of choice.
Mazie Hirono is a disgrace to Hawaii, and her potty mouth needs to end now!
I hope you will have the fairness and aloha to print this.
Laverne Paulos
Honokaa