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Docs turning thumbs down on All Kids

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Illinois

The governor’s office recently issued a statement on All Kids

More than 120,000 Illinois children have enrolled in the All Kids health insurance program since November 2005. […]

“I am proud to announce that since we took office, 300,000 children across the state now have health insurance who didn’t have it before,” Blagojevich said in a statement. “That means those kids are healthier, their families are healthier, and they are more likely to do well in school.”

Not mentioned was how many of those children were already enrolled in an existing Medicaid program and were simply moved over to All Kids, which was billed as relief for middle class parents without insurance. The last time an announcement like this was made, we later discovered that only a tiny handful of middle class kids were in the program.

Also, the Daily Herald discovered that doctors are extremely reluctant to accept the program’s enrollees.

A Daily Herald survey of 58 Kane County pediatricians on a state-supplied list found that at least 41 percent were not accepting new All Kids patients. In addition, more than one in five of the phone numbers either sent callers to a fax machine, pager or cell phone, or they were disconnected.

Just over 12 percent said they accepted only newborns, while another 12 percent did not respond. Ten doctors offices on the state list of 58 said they accept new pediatric patients under All Kids; all were in Elgin or Aurora.

And, as usual, the stone wall is still encircling this administration.

The governorâ€™s office so far has not fulfilled a Dec. 1 Freedom of Information Act request for similar lists from other suburban counties. A patient presumably could get the lists in a timely fashion by calling a hotline for the All Kids program.

The program boosted physician payments - tripling the reimbursement for visits, for instance - but doctors are so frustrated with the state’s Medicaid reimbursement rates that they are just flat-out refusing to accept new patients.

The governor really needs to address this problem. Now that the election is over, he should either make All Kids work or try something else that does actually bring healthcare to children.

posted by Rich Miller
Monday, Dec 18, 06 @ 12:18 pm

Comments

Despite your grumbling on this, All Kids is working.

You keep claiming that they are padding their numbers by counting those that they moved over from medicaid.

Yes, they did move kids from medicaid into All Kids. How many? ALL OF THEM. All 900,000 of them (or however many there were). There is one state health care program for all kids in the state. Everyone else seems to get it but you.

If you read the article, the numbers they use are the growth in people who have state healthcare (in All Kids).

There were about 950,000 kids in state health care before the governor took office. There is now almost 1.3 million. That is a growth of 300,000 since he took office. Whether you think that is a good thing or a bad thing, that is fact.

120,000 of that growth came in the last year since All Kids was signed into law.

So, no, they aren’t double counting, Rich. And you are just being dishonest.

Comment by sam Monday, Dec 18, 06 @ 12:30 pm
Bottom line: It was billed as a middle class program and the numbers being bandied about are inflated. If they weren’t being inflated, the full and complete counts would be released every time we see a new press release.

Also, what about those reluctant docs, “Sam”? And why can’t you people even fulfill a FOIA on which doctors qualify?

Comment by Rich Miller Monday, Dec 18, 06 @ 12:33 pm
It was billed as enrolling the 250,000 uninsured kids in the state. Half of those were “middle class”, half of those were kids who were eligible but not enrolled.

Again, if you read the articles, like I did, you will see that more than half of the kids who have enrolled since the program began on July 1 are “middle class.”

—-

“you people”?

Haha… wrong office. My office fills all its FOIAs. All 0 of them.

Comment by sam Monday, Dec 18, 06 @ 12:41 pm
It is hard to understand the benefit to kids of this coverage program if the doctors won’t see them.

Comment by Bubs Monday, Dec 18, 06 @ 12:42 pm
Docs are business people, too. I don’t think anybody (except maybe the State’s budget people) blames them for trying to get more money for their services.

But there is a difference between not accepting new All Kids patients, and not accepting All Kids patients at all, for what it’s worth.

Sorry for taking up so much space on your board here, Rich. I just get passionate about health care issues.

Comment by sam Monday, Dec 18, 06 @ 12:44 pm
They are not trying to get more money. They are just trying to get paid for services rendered. The state owes the money, and just will not pay it. Why not go get passionate about that?

Comment by Bubs Monday, Dec 18, 06 @ 12:47 pm
===Again, if you read the articles, like I did, you will see that more than half of the kids who have enrolled since the program began on July 1 are â€œmiddle class.â€===

Where might that be? I reread the articles, so maybe I’m just blind.

Comment by Rich Miller Monday, Dec 18, 06 @ 12:48 pm
One must wonder if the Gov has actually made access to health care worse by expanding the previous children’s care to illegal aliens (and lets not kid ourselves, that is all that happened).

If you have a lot of docs not taking new patients, over time you are restricting access.

Comment by Pat Collins Monday, Dec 18, 06 @ 12:50 pm
This was a campaign PR stunt first and formost, only now they have been re-elected and sit responsible for it are they trying to figure out how to actually fulfill the promises made before the election. Everybody with any sense has been saying “I told you so” on this since the initial proposal.

The next step will be a useless and costly law suit brought by the state against all the docs who won’t get on board. I’d say they’d try to threaten the docs thru the Department of Professional Regulation, but they eviscerated that agency’s enforcement branch to the point that even Kevorkian would get a pass, they’re so overloaded and underfunded.

Instead of promising free unicorns to everybody, they should have worked harder to pay down the medicaid bills in the first place. Instead they politicized the care of the kids and said you are against kids if you oppose them. Nobody is against health care for kids. We should be against people promising what they can’t deliver, what they never intended to really deliver. You just know Brad was going to be thrown under the bus for this one if he’d stayed.

Comment by Gregor Monday, Dec 18, 06 @ 12:53 pm
Dems count this as a successful program by seeing how large the Medicaid, sorry..Allkids, enrollment gets. Republicans would view this as a success if the states economy was good enough so that the enrollment numbers drop.

Comment by Ben Monday, Dec 18, 06 @ 1:13 pm
We need single-payor universal healthcare.

Comment by Squideshi Monday, Dec 18, 06 @ 1:14 pm
I think the issue with children who are illegals is that the state (that is, us) has to pick up the full cost of health care as the feds do not reimburse. It’s not that many I believe, under 20,000, but this is likely a growing population given current immigration trends. We can affford this now, but what about 10 years from now. Remember, Allkids covers very expensive hospital care and you don’t need a primary care doc to get into a hospital if you need hospitalization Just show up at the ER. The state has to pay. Millions if necessary.

I think Kidcare already covered some lower middle class families. We really don’t know how many kids have enrolled into Allkids who were not
already eligible for Kidcare. This is likely not information that the guv’s office is anxious to share.

The real problem is that, setting aside illegals, this overhyped program does little for access to care in Illinois. The problem is adults (over a million of them) with no access to affordable health care, many with pre-existing conditions. Our governorlite has done nothing to advance that issue so far.

Looks like what Allkids has mostly done so far is to enhance Brad Tusk’s resume as he departs for bigger things.

Comment by Cassandra Monday, Dec 18, 06 @ 1:22 pm
Many physicians would like to become Primary Care Case Managers (PCCMs) in the AllKids program, but to expect them to accept fees based on the Medicaid fee schedule is expecting too much. By the way, fees were not tripled. They were increased for approximately ten primary care codes out of the thousands that physicians bill. This increase resulted from the settlement of a lawsuit brought by groups representing Medicaid clients who understood the fundemental economics of the program — harsh price contols lead to shortages of available care. There has been no increase for physician specialists who provide care to clients.

Medicaid fees paid to physicians are 40% lower than fees paid by the feds under Medicare. Medicaid fees have increased only 11% over the last 13 years while physician practice expenses have increased over 40%.

Why should anyone expect doctors to subsidize a state program by accepting payments for less than what it costs to provide the care?

Comment by Anon Monday, Dec 18, 06 @ 1:58 pm
There should be no new or upgraded programs or raises of any kind for anyone until the State starts paying for the basic fundamental legitimate things as education, roads or bridges that are actually closed for safety reasons, and the elderly and kids that are United States citizens with absolutely no other means of support.

Comment by independent downstater Monday, Dec 18, 06 @ 3:48 pm
The true problem with AllKids is that, unlike Medicaid, it is not an entitlement program which covers all legitimate bills as presented. The enabling legislation says that providers’ bills will be paid to the extent the program is funded by the legislature. So who cares if it’s 3 times the medicaid rate, if it’s not fully funded a doctor could treat a child and then be told well after the fact, “Sorry, we just don’t have any money to pay you”, which is a very real possibility given the State’s current fiscal troubles.

Comment by cashflowpro Monday, Dec 18, 06 @ 4:24 pm
The Governor can’t fix the problems in his administration until he first learns to admit there are problems in his administration.

Also, you’ll note that the Governor says that 300,000 more kids now have access to health care coverage. Most of that, I believe, is through the expansion of KidCare eligibility, and just because kids are eligible for care — have “access” — doesn’t mean they are actually enrolled in it.

Blagojevich has a serious case of campaignus uninterruptus, leaving most reasonable people questioning most of the things that come out of his mouth most of the time. Don’t get me wrong, I love politics, but there’s a problem if Blagojevich is spewing numbers that say “Mission Accomplished” if that doesn’t match the facts on the ground…because it means people won’t actually get the help they need.

Comment by Yellow Dog Democrat Monday, Dec 18, 06 @ 5:08 pm
And don’t forget, the budget is balanced….

Comment by Lovie's Leather Monday, Dec 18, 06 @ 5:27 pm
excessively rabid. You are funny. Politics is a blood sport. This is a blog not NBC. Take it easy on the cola products and let that whiskey be.

Comment by howard Monday, Dec 18, 06 @ 6:22 pm
The point is - this Gov. is all about appearance, show, superficiality. If the numbers look good, and people don’t look to deeply, he thinks he’s got that chance at VP. Yet, I see him weakly weeping as his hands wrap around the bars that will lock him away for a few years. I also hope they take away his Elvis privileges.

Comment by Yo! Monday, Dec 18, 06 @ 7:02 pm
Umm… Yellow Dog… nobody is talking about “access.” This is the actual quote:

“300,000 children across the state now have health insurance who didnâ€™t have it before”

Look, I understand there isn’t a lot of good news that we see coming out of the administration. But I am one of those who have worked with community organizations around the state who are signing people up for All Kids, and this is one of the saving graces of this administration, I believe.

The front lines - the people who actually know - are nearly overwhelmed by the people signing up for this program. If they really have enrolled 120,000 of the 250,000 uninsured kids in the state, that’s great news.

You may not care a lick about it, but there are a lot of kids who are actually, physically benefiting from All Kids. I know two families who have signed up - they went without coverage for 2 years because they couldn’t afford the $300/month insurance for their kids. I won’t tell you any wishy washy stories about what it means to them to have health insurance - I am sure all of you are well aware of the benefits of your own insurance…

Comment by JohnR Monday, Dec 18, 06 @ 9:22 pm
Oh, and Rich…

I think its a good thing “sam” called you out. You don’t want to think that your above error, now, do you?

Comment by JohnR Monday, Dec 18, 06 @ 9:24 pm
I don’t mind being called out when I’m wrong, but I wasn’t wrong.

Comment by Rich Miller Monday, Dec 18, 06 @ 9:32 pm
Also, apparently, having health insurance and finding a willing doctor are two different things.

Comment by Rich Miller Monday, Dec 18, 06 @ 9:33 pm
I knwo a mom to be who has qualified for AllKids; she can’t find an OBGYN in her town that will accept her.
Under KidCare, I dare say it would’ve been covered under ‘moms and babies’.

I wonder this: if Kidcare was reimbursed with matching funds by the Feds, how does rolling in illegals square with us keeping those dollars coming?

Comment by 2 different things entirely Monday, Dec 18, 06 @ 10:38 pm
Here’s the lesson:
you can give everyone health insurance but if there’s no doctors to provide the care, it’s worthless

Health insurance does not always equal medical care.

Comment by Michelle Flaherty Monday, Dec 18, 06 @ 11:15 pm
So when did the charter of state government expand to the point of providing health care to middle class families? Is this a business the government should to be involved with? Why is it good for society that I pay for other middle class kids to have health insurance? I’m so confused. I thought government was supposed to enforce contracts and build infrastructure, now they are in the health insurance business for middle class families… what’s next?

Comment by C$ Tuesday, Dec 19, 06 @ 7:38 am
It’s a myth that the citizens most in need of health insurance and health care are children and the elderly. Even before Allkids, children in Illinois, even illegals, had access to free and low cost care. The elderly have Medicare and Medicaid and have had for decades.

The problem is non-elderly adult citizens, most of them working, especially those with pre-existing conditions. They can get insurance, but it is prohibitively expensive for many. This is the group that should be the focus of government programming before we start providing taxpayer-paid free health care to illegals of any age.

Comment by Cassandra Tuesday, Dec 19, 06 @ 8:06 am
Loser Program by a soon-to-be indicted Illinois governor.

Comment by Barrington, IL - Docs Tuesday, Dec 19, 06 @ 1:01 pm
I think that the All Kids program was named not with children in mind but, rather, with the phrase “Just Kidding.”

Comment by Squideshi Tuesday, Dec 19, 06 @ 11:58 pm
Squid, do you ever sleep?

Comment by Rich Miller Wednesday, Dec 20, 06 @ 12:00 am