Anybody There? Physicians Unfairly Penalized for AWOL Medicare Advantage Patients

You've tried and tried and tried. Phone calls, emails - nothing. A Medicare Advantage plan assigned you a patient who didn't choose you, and the patient is driving that point home - by ignoring you. Or maybe the contact information the plan gave you is out of date, and the patient's latest phone number or email is unknown. Either way, your as-yet-unseen patient is AWOL - and you can be penalized for it on health plans' quality ratings, which ultimately can affect payments. New Texas Medical Association policy takes aim at the unfairness this lack of patient response can present for physicians, while opening up an opportunity for medicine to work with health plans to solve the problem.