I called every pediatrician in town and nobody accepts my state insurance. Moreover, they don’t accept cash payments either.
Now I will try to get Klara off my insurance and into N’s or we’ll end up with an unvaccinated baby. I wonder what people who don’t have a spouse on a private insurance plan are supposed to do.
Clarissa's Blog 
“they don’t accept cash payments either”
That is beyond weird….. Are US medical services so overpriced in insurance terms that performing services at a market price is not worth their time?
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“Are US medical services so overpriced in insurance terms that performing services at a market price is not worth their time?”
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That’s odd. My GP who knows I have a high deductible plan (before the deductible collects payment from me, but tells the insurance so it’s applied to the deductible) will usually charge me the lowest level visit or the self pay rate. GP practice is all about volume so…
I’ve known cardiologists in private practice who did the same thing.
It must be the issue of you having insurance that is not paying claims but not technically being uninsured which is causing pediatricians to reject you as a patient, especially if you’re calling private practices not affiliated with a larger hospital. The large hospital affiliated practices have less flexibility. Smaller practices might not have the staff to deal with the issue. If say BCBS administers the state plan accepting cash from someone on the state plan instead of billing the insurance could cause BCBS to drop the doctor as a carrier from not only that plan but all other plans BCBS has the doctor on as an authorized provider. Yes it’s ludicrous.
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That’s precisely the problem: I do have insurance and pay (high) premiums. But the insurance refuses to honor its obligations and pay claims. It’s the most ridiculous situation in the world.
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They don’t accept cash? That is bizaare. In most of the world cash is always and is the only thing accepted.
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I know! That’s why I’m so shocked. It’s like we are being left with no options.
This is a good answer to my husband’s question, “Why does it make sense to move to Canada?”
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You have a problem that is in part specific to Illinois and predates the current governor. Illinois state insurance is extremely slow to pay physicians. However, independently, many doctors are dropping health insurance altogether due to the costs they incur in administering it and the low rates of reimbursement. (At one point, Aetna was paying doctors $5.00 for an office visit.)
http://www.insurance.com/health-insurance/coverage/when-doctors-go-cash-only.html
Doctors not accepting cash is weird. In fact, not accepting legal tender for services is illegal. They may want immediate payment rather than sending a bill after the visit. But not taking cash? BTW, did you check Dr. Krick’s practice?
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