While enrollees are not in danger of losing coverage altogether, many are nonetheless finding the experience painful. As a result, they are selling the retirement home they bought five years ago and will move to an area where managed care is still available. Many HMOs eliminated co-pays to entice seniors to join their plans. While the nation's 65-plus population copes with Medicare HMO pullouts, physicians are working through issues of their own. But doctors under contract to only a departing HMO may lose significant numbers of patients.
Many physicians already report being stiffed for outstanding payments.
And there may be more lasting consequences. In addition to stranding patients and doctors, the pullouts by HMOs raise serious questions about the union of private business and public health care for seniors. Not long ago, the idea of moving Medicare patients into managed care health plans seemed like a match made in heaven. Managed care companies facing saturated commercial markets saw vast potential for profit in the nation's 39 million Medicare beneficiaries, according to Joyce DuBow, a public policy analyst for the American Association of Retired Persons in Washington. Many seniors liked what they saw.