Physicians brace for impact of GM's health cost cuts

As union workers and retirees are asked to pay more health care costs, doctors wonder if patients will delay visits, or fees will drop.

By Bob Cook, AMNews staff. Nov. 7, 2005.

General Motors is coughing, and physicians are fearing they'll catch cold.

The nation's largest automaker, which has blamed health costs as a big reason it has lost $3 billion in the first nine months of this year, recently announced that the United Auto Workers agreed to a deal on health coverage that the company said would cut GM's expenses by $3 billion annually, before taxes.

Physicians in GM states say that, historically, when autoworkers are forced to pay more for health care, they "delay getting medical treatment and other measures for cost-saving purposes," said William Mohr, MD, immediate past president of the Indiana State Medical Assn.

Physicians also wonder whether GM's cost cutting eventually will mean reduced reimbursement from GM-affiliated health plans, though the company has announced no plans to seek reduced physician pay.

Already, the Michigan State Medical Society and the Michigan Osteopathic Assn. -- with the vocal support of the AMA -- have a lawsuit pending against Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan for lowering physician fees without their consent, then threatening to kick out any physician who did not accept them. The lawsuit is related to the Blues' role as a third-party administrator for the plan covering UAW members employed by GM, Ford Motor Co. and DaimlerChrysler.

"We are very, very concerned as to how the [new GM-UAW deal] is structured," said Alan Mindlin, MD, president of the Michigan State Medical Society. If the new deal results in further reduction of physician fees, the society will not take it lying down, he said. "The days are gone when you can treat doctors like dogs."