This is in regards to MGH-CDH not allowing Medicare Blue Cross Advantage plans to continue seeing CDH primary care providers. Obviously short-sighted financial concerns are behind this decision. Meanwhile, there is a critical shortage of primary care practitioners in this community. Those seniors who want to keep their less expensive, but comprehensive Medicare Blue Cross Advantage HMO have to find a new primary care doctor. Where are they going to find them?
It is my understanding that there are no primary care doctors accepting new patients. Primary care should be the pillar of any healthcare system, like it is in many western European countries. Instead it’s giving way to the fragmented, expensive specialist oriented care. Is this the influence of the specialist oriented MGH on our local hospital?
Paul Thaler, M.D.
Florence