Originally published in The Vidette-Messenger of Porter County on March 14, 1961.
County Doctors Asking More Welfare Money
By CHARLIE TRENKLE
Fees charged by physicians to recipients of county welfare aid will probably be increased at the insistence of the doctor.
Three physicians, Drs. Martin J. O’Neill, Thomas C. Hall, and Leonard J. Green, Monday evening protested the present fee schedule for medical aid, originally established in 1950.
At a meeting Jan. 31, 1961, members of the Porter County Medical Society unanimously went on record attacking the fee schedule as obsolete, the doctors reported.
A letter from Dr. Thomas J. Covey, secretary of the medical society, also stated that the members felt they were no longer bound by the fee schedule which had been agreed upon jointly by the society and the county welfare board.
County Commissioner Virgil O. King, present at Monday night’s meeting in the courthouse between the three doctors and the welfare board, pointed out that the welfare department is now bound until Jan. 1, 1962, with the present fee schedule because of the budget passed in September.
“There are no provisions for any increase in fees,” King told the doctors. “The earliest we could start paying for any change would be next January after the budget was revised this fall.”
Dr. O’Neill called the present fee schedule “unrealistic” in comparison with fees charged private patients and asked for a $1 increase on all items “across the board.”
If charity is to be given, it should be given by the doctor,” Dr. Green added.
At the present time, the welfare fee schedule items mainly objected to were the $2 charged for office visits (adjoining counties reportedly pay $2.50 and $3), house visits at $4 during the day and $5 at night (other counties reportedly pay $4 and $5 during the day and $4 and $8 at night) and the hospital call fee of $3 a day (others are said to be from $1 to $3 with some providing for a higher fee for the first day of acute conditions).
The adherence of the welfare department to Blue Cross standard schedule of fees for surgery was also attacked. Dr. Green told the welfare board that this schedule was 35 to 50 percent below the fees charged by Porter county surgeons for their patients.
Mrs. Lester Hineline, secretary of the welfare board and head of the department, pointed out that the welfare department spent nearly $46,000 on medical care for the aged and under the Aid to Dependent Children program in 1960.
She added that $5,000 a month was spent this far in 1961. The aid includes services of dentists, physicians, optometrists, pharmaceutical supplies and appliances, hospital expenses, ambulances, and nursing home care.
Further discussion of the matter is expected by members of the county Medical society. It was anticipated that the fee schedule will be revised upward by members of the welfare board.