Anyone go to an OB/GYN practice that does NOT accept insurance?

There seems to be some OB/GYN's out there that are no longer accepting insurance and are charging in addition to regular visits an annual fee to be patients. I actually have a few friends that are doing this because they really like their doctor.
Anyone else doing this??

My OB stopped taking all but two insurance types (both NYC insurance companies). I think this is becoming more and more common in more metropolitan areas. His reason for leaving the insurance world was that he calculated he was spending more time doing paperwork and fighting to get paid than actually delivering babes and treating his patients.

We thought long and hard about switching for this pregnancy, but I absolutely love him (as does Jonathan). I've been going to him for close to 15 years, he does high risk, knows my cardiologist and regularly works with her. He's also very well acquainted with my complicated health history.

iWe fortunately can see him as an out of network specialist and Aetna will cover a fair amount of his fee (which is $8000).

Because I've been going to him for so very long, he's willing to work with me on the fee and will probably accept whatever Aetna pays him (it should be around $3000 - which is my cap for OON providers).

I can't see ever leaving him. He's great, and his Office Manager has gone above and beyond the call of duty for me several times.

As far as I'm concerned, they're both worth their weight in gold and then some.

-m

Though my group accepts some insurance, it didn't accept the insurance I had during my first pregnancy. We paid (a payment plan basically) for prenatal care and delivery. For us, I knew we would have different insurance within the next few years and didn't want to switch. (I love my OB, though) I would do it again in a heartbeat even though we just paid off the last of it. ;)

I don't have this issue but in my major metro area we had an article in the paper about how some specialists are doing this to control their patient experiences more. The article went on to describe how some of the over-scheduling problems we all experience is due to the insurance companies low rate of reimbursement and how they (the docs) must see a certain number of patients per day to compensate. The docs in the article also said that by not participating in a plan they can recommend any procedure and drug they think is appropriate and make house calls if they want to. The docs in the article I saw were very much specialists (no OB's were interviewed)-- a couple of dermatologists stick in my head.

Edited to add that the patients interviewed LOVED the experience of going to their docs and thought it was worth it. I would think the OB experience would be more difficult to not have insurance since you go so often (as opposed to a dermatologist, say) and that for most women, you KNOW a hospital stay is part of the deal.

Allison
Mommy to Matthew Clayton, 5/19/03

I have only heard of one example of this, so I'm interested in people's responses. In Washington DC, a co-worker went to a gynecologist at George Washington Hopsital Center who was very interested in alternative and complementary medicine. Just as I was considering going to him, my co-worker showed me a letter he'd sent to all his patients saying he was going to stop accepting any insurance, thus necessitating him leaving the gyn department, and solely practice out of the Center for Alternative Medicine at the hospital. His letter said he did it to stop spending so much time on paperwork and be more free to treat patients as he saw fit. He said he and his staff would be more than willing to provide paperwork that patients could submit on their own for reimbursement, or to help provide referrals to other doctors.

I never met this doctor, so his letter and my co-worker's rave reviews are all I know about him. I'm not sure this no-insurance policy would for me as his patient, but I admired him for doing something to improve his professional quality of life.