A reader recently commented that Doctor's Choice (1345 S. Michigan Ave.) is closing it's doors and sure enough, that seems to be the case. Although we don't claim to be health care experts, it seems strange that they're citing changes in Medicare as the reason. 
54 comments:
It's become more difficult to gain reimbursement from Medicare over the past two years. They've also cut the reimbursement rate. Given that they sell virtually all medical supplies, that means a significant cut in sales. Can't say I'll be sad to see it go, although I don't relish another empty storefront.
IMO, this is a scapegoat for poor sales and a poor business model... I am in the medical industry and have adjusted my practice to counteract the ongoing changes. Adapt or blame everyone but yourself...
Thank You President no-bama! More of that hope & change crap! I'm hoping for CHANGE! Lets be honest between the medicare cuts and all the NEW TAXES on small business, this is only the beginning. Yes, lets be honest, put a chunk of the blame where it belongs, I agree adapt or change but sometimes things are out of our control. So sad to see an empty store front and the people who will loose their jobs.
Don't worry no-bama will have his LONG vacation in Hawaii while the rest of wonder how to make ends meet or look at a new empty store front.
Who cares. The business served no value as a whole. Put a food place in their and get medical supplies elsewhere. No reason for a place like that to need a Michigan avenue address. Could care less about the politics just want something cooler to take it's place.
Completely agree with the sentiment. Poor business model and really had not business being there. Pun intended.
Also, annoyed by the, presumably cynically, "god bless america".
Dear Readers, show of hands... how many of you have actually been inside that store??? Glad to see it go.
I wonder why they used so much tape on their out of business notice. 4 small pieces should suffice.
That would be a great spot for a Metropolis or Intelligentsia coffee house. We need places like this!
Couldn't agree more on the coffee shop idea. I would have liked to have seen it where the Entourage Man/Alain's is.
That's a Chipotle baby!
I would not merely say this is a bad business model. Anyone that depends on Medicare reimbursement is in trouble.
Starting Jan 1, unless something unexpected changes, Medicare reimbursement to physicians will decrease by 27.4%. Overhead keeps going up, and thanks to the medico-legal climate, Cook County has some of the highest malpractise premiums in the country. These numbers just are not sustainable.
Seniors should not be surprised when they start hearing in the near future that their physician just cannot see Medicare patients any longer.
Where do I sign the Chipotle petition
Thanks Obama.
And if we get Dowell as you Alderman, expect even more of this type of burden and redistribution.
Yeah, the failure of this business is totally Obama's fault!
Quit your crying, the health industry has been a burden on our economy for too many decades. I welcome the direction we are going... these changes are for the greater good - and will stop the sucking sound coming from the medicare supplies industry.
The health care industry charges one price to Medicare, a different higher price to insurance companies, and a third much-higher price to individuals
Wheelchair=$850? Really?
Somebody fix this mess! Thank you Obama!
^^^ the world needs brain-dead buffoons too.....
It's the brain-dead buffoons like brendan that are grinding this country to a halt. Your fragment of a reply is not holding any weight.
Sorry to see that you have been infected by the fox...
So true... suppliers have been robbing the system:
Power-driven wheelchairs are costing Medicare and its beneficiaries nearly four times what suppliers pay for them, and competitive bidding could have reduced those costs, according to an inspector general's report.
A standard power wheelchair costs the federal health insurance program for seniors an average of $4,018 to lease, compared with $1,048 for suppliers to buy, the Department of Health and Human Services' internal watchdog reported.
"Medicare and its beneficiaries paid suppliers an average of $2,970 beyond the supplier's acquisition cost to perform an average of five services and cover general business costs," the report found.
the only people thanking Obama should be the poor, the unemployed, the Union labor, and the illegal immigrants. Which are you, 10:12AM Anon?
Everyone else in their right mind should lend their support elsewhere if he or she hopes for greater prosperity.
Well it sad to see any small business close.
For those talking about billing medicare excessive amounts,
don't ever go to walgreens or cvs. They are the leaders at overcharging consumers and medicare for all things. Why do people pay yearly fees for prescription discounts? That's so they can still charge medicare/medicaid crazy prices because that is "not a price available to all customers" and medicaid/medicare patients are excluded from even signing up. On the other hand Walmart is only legally allow to bill medicare 4 bucks for anything on their list because they don't charge yearly fees to consumers.
Great point markchicago... albeit extremely selfish and close-minded...
Let's ignore the needs of the poor, the unemployed, the Union labor, and the illegal immigrants.
How has that been working for the economy over the last 30 years? Where has that brought us today?
Everyone in their RIGHT (Fox-influenced) mind wrongly believes that lending their support to the GOP will bring greater prosperity. Not really…
Only the top 1% will prosper unless everyone has a fair chance to succeed. We are finally righting the ship; just prepare yourself for some of the bumps along the way.
Some guy puts up a sign in his shuttered business and ZOMG IT"S OBAMA'S FAULT!
The republicans want - at best - to replace Medicare with a voucher system that won't even scale to rising health care costs. Look it up.
But sure as shooting' there's enough born every minute to find a taped up sign as further proof of their preconceived beliefs.
Romney/Bachman 2012.
LOL.
LOL
Liberals foolish blind faith in the sham known as Barack always gave me the giggles...LOLOLOL
Proof that idiots CAN impact the country. Hows that approval rating treating you?
Oh-- and please, give up the whole "fox news is the devil" charade. Its old, tired, and used up much like your Civic Hybrid and your hemp necklace. Why not try CONTRIBUTING to society instead "occupying" it?
Can't wait for Rubio/Paul Ryan to right this ship already, Obama and all his chicago cronies/deadbeat liberal supporters can go drive their ten speeds off a cliff already. ( maybe rahm can make a "bike lane for that, too"
@ HipsterProtesterAnon
Keep pushing that rhetoric, blame the rich. It's the fault of the makers for the plight of the takers. Mmmmmmm hmmmmm.
Oh wonderful
We woke up the liberals...
You would think this atrocious presidency would shut all those good for nothin beatniks up
then again i dont think HALF of obamas "supporters" even FOLLOW politics or have any true concern for the welfare of this country...
What a waste of four years... Jimmy Carter all over again.
Steven
A sign in a closed shop window provokes the conservatives. No background info, no context. Just a sign someone taped to a window.
What's been so atrocious about the Obama presidency? If anything, he's been operating as a center right politician. He extended the bush tax cuts. What the heck do you want?
And who will lead us out of the darkness, you Randian geniuses down in South Loop Galt's Gulch? Mittens/Bachman 2012? Really, I'd like to hear.
steven and mark, keep believing your fox news propaganda... it seems to make you feel better...
You might be surprised to know that Obama’s supporters really do follow politics and have a true concern for the welfare of this country...
mark’s statements express the opposite and steven’s comments reflect the narrow-mindedness of the right and their concerns for only themselves.
Anyone who believes that our economic system has been "fair and balanced" has been drinking the GOP kool-aid.
Characterizing people who support our president as a liberal/hipster/protester are simply mistaken and are acting like a 5-year old, stop it…
I suggest you get a grip on the reality we face and away from the nonsense you have been told by unreliable sources…
Business shutting down provokes everybody....well , those of us that actually WORK
Anon-- get real already. Your constant excuse that all conservatives are driven by fox news is getting sooooooo old.
MSNBC, CNN, Public television/NPR, all of it is biased to the Left so dont throw your pity party about how we have been misguided. Alot of us are business owners who have seen either first hand or not how the current regime has handcuffed business owners today. Nothing AT ALL has been accomplished this presidential term
Have you seen the approval ratings--- some of the worst in the history of this country. Oh wait ...is that just more big bad faox news talking?
Get a grip---your HOPE/Change campaign failed miserably. Move on and let this country get back to a better run free market. Go sell your solar panels in mexico, I wish you all would just go away.
Bhahahahahaha
Are you hippies the same 12 that were having an orgy in grant park while smoking your doobies and "occupying" the mean streets of chicago financial district?!?
What a waste of life
Keep Dowell the hell out of the Sloop! Fioretti is no genius but if she takes over under the new lines it will be a nightmare.
Yes, I've seen the approval ratings:
http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/info-presapp0605-31.html
Obama is around 48% right now, very far from the lowest. In fact Obama is right around Reagan's level of approval.
Handcuffed business owners today? So you've seen it firsthand or not? (your words). Bah, you won't answer any direct questions, you simply parrot back platitudes about regulations without naming a single specific.
You come across as a low information voter. It's OK, there's plenty of you. Hell GWB left office with around a 25% approval rating. So who are you rootin' for? Perry/Santorum? Maybe Trump will ride in on a white horse and save the day for beleaguered business owners such as yourself.
Again, I ask that you name some of these regulations that Obama has been personally involved with that have "handcuffed" your inner Galt-child.
BRENDAN- you're counting on Rubio and Paul Ryan to clean up some mess? Where? In Chicago? In the White House? Your fevered imagination?
Well, I guess you can hold out hope that they'll swoop in and take Gold in the GOP Special Olympics Pretrials. Good luck with that buddy!
This is truly the most entertaining primary I've ever witnessed.
Why does every pea-brained liberal bring up Reagan ??
Correction...Obamas approval at this moment is 48% but that is just skewed due to the lack of a GOP candidate. His low ( as it stood for some time ) was 38% knocking him near the bottom of all time with Jimmy carter ( 28%)
I have ( and still own ) three businesses in the home remodeling industry and have for close to 27 years. I also have a shares in my sisters logistics company for 14 years. The taxes on capital dividends have HANDCUFFED this industry and many industries big and small---forcing layoffs and driving healthcare costs to the point of cutting profit sharing and even layoffs ( as we have seen in alot of our clients case)
But no---you sit there and play with people lives by incessantly supporting a communist just because you have stuck your neck out for this idiot and cried at his grant Park rally. Did that "hope" sticker come off alright on the back of your Prius?
Keep popping off about matters that don't directly affect you-- you look real smart. And don't bother watching Bill Maher tonight for a rebuttal....i'm through responding to this trash.
I've been drawn in. If you open a business where the only potential source of revenue is medicare/medicaid, shame on you. Unfortunately, I'm surprised it didn't thrive in the neighborhood. Apparently, our neighbors have other sources to get their fix of the government teet. A successful Doctor's Choice would be a model for Mr. Obama's economy.
I hear that rising Medicare costs are what is keeping that awesome italian joint from opening in the former grace o'malley's location.
I heard rising medicare costs havn't prevented your awesome mom from blowing my mind every friday at midnight in the alley behind Goodyear
@ CoffeeShopSkinnyJeans Anon:
Since this is a message board and not an essay board, I'll mention Obama's restrictive EPA regulations as an example. Pretty simple.
Although not a regulation, Obamacare is his least friendly action to businesses. There is no denying the exorbitant cost increases to businesses.
Supporting the nightmare that is Obama is nothing more than a trend.
people need to get attention and stick out....by supporting and ripping Bush back in '08 they could do just that. but the fact of the matter is simple....most "liberals" do not impact the economy at all and in the reciprocal offer very little to the economy. The poster above a few notches mention Bill Maher....well its hollywood types like Maher, Michael Moore, and such that sensationalize Obama and teach these very feeble minded liberals that
a. FOX news is the devil when in fact you could just change the damn channel, its not hard. You dont see conservatives watching Maddow for every little thing that pisses them off..... ITS ALMOST LIKE A DESPARATE LURKING
b. Obama is trying to change the country when in fact the only change that occured was for the worse
c. republicans light their big cigars with $100 dollar bills-- the "occupy" movement could be single handedly the most embarrassing thing for the country that has ever taken place. Liberals represented by a group of drugged out thugs that fornicate and produce nothing except violent acts as people walk into their jobs....borderline repulsive.
Liberalism is mental retardation. I would venture to say that 75% of liberals call them selves that just because they smoke pot and enjoy their image as a "free spirit". Instead of following rules/laws and common decency they rove our country damning the same companies that stimulate the economy and produce more jobs
Other than George Soros, liberlas have no business sense and frame of reference in which ot comment on the economy which I why i think its "cute" when they try to sound smart in threads like this. Do the world a favor and get the hell out of this country, we hate your guts.
WOW
BOOM. ROASTED!
I dont think you'll get much response....most of these liberals are still in bed.
HAHAHAHAHAHHAAHA
Apparently a little political talk on a neighborhood blog has gotten you guys pretty agitated. Name calling. Personal attacks.
Claiming the president is a communist does a disservice to him and the horrific truth of the misery that actual communism created in the 20th century.
Again, you are simply wrong about presidential approval levels and records. Carter's lowest approval number was 28, a bad number admittedly. Truman, Nixon and GW Bush all were lower than Carter. Obama's lowest approval so far is 38, Which beats Truman, Nixon, GW Bush, Carter, GHW Bush, Reagan, Johnson, Ford and Clinton. Obama is simply not near the bottom in this ranking. It's objectively false.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_approval_rating
You are hearing and repeating lies. You are agitated and calling people names. You know nothing of my income or what kind of jeans I or any other commenter wears, so you make up a caricature in your head, then clap each other on the back. With a mentality like this, it's no surprise that your business may be struggling, and that you assign the blame to some mythical policy coming directly from the president. In another age, you'd be blaming your business troubles or crop failures on demons, or hexes or witches.
Obama extended the Bush tax cuts for two years. The recession started under Bush, and Bush signed TARP into law October 3, 2008. these are objective truths.
I'm not sure approval ratings matter and nobody is saying Barack Hussein = Stalin. Transitioning to Communism or Socialism is a process, with many shades of gray in between. People are rightly concerned about Obama's policies & values, which follow the failed European far-left model.
Personally, I feel there is a shared indifference & ignorance among young people that is perpetuated by pop culture, which is steering our country in this direction.
Obama inherited an bad economy created by the Pelosi-Reid Congress. Instead of correcting the problems in the economy, the prez added to them by increasing wasteful spending and creating regulations that will require bankrupt business. He has appointed a Fed prez that had already proved his incompetence in his Bush term. Both have created the uncertainty that is destroying the economy. If the prez want to know why the economy stinks, he should look in a mirror.
Nobody ever saw a liberal in a business class. I agree with brendan/mark/steven
Needed - JOBS. Delivered - Health Care Reform. WHY? Not because it was right for the country but because the Democrats saw this as their only chance to pass something that they had wanted for decades. Wonderful. Affordable health care INSURANCE for everyone. Too bad they do not have a job so that they can earn the money to buy the insurance. The government should not be there to create jobs. The government should create a tax and regulatory structure that fosters job creation by entrepreneurs. We do not need more government jobs. We need jobs in manufacturing, basic materials (coal, mining, oil, minerals), and other areas that create wealth rather than simply redistribute the existing wealth in the form of taxes and handouts. It is not the time for more social engineering. The largest union is no longer the UAW or USW (manufacturing) it is the AFSCME (government workers). Unless this trend is reversed, pretty soon everyone will have a government job, just like in Cuba.
...there is a shared indifference & ignorance among conservative people that is perpetuated by the FOX/EB NEWS culture, which is steering our country in this direction.
It is well known that the federal government has halted their hiring practices over the last few years and there is no sign that it will change. They are hiring a single person for every 2 or 3 people that retire/leave. Other state and local governments are firing at an alarming rate.
The problem we are facing and have been for over 30 years stems from the lack of ethical judgement within the private sector. Regulations HAVE to be scaled up to insure that the vultures in the banking/private arenas are kept from continuously robbing the rest of us.
I laugh when I hear about social engineering... the democrats aren't bright enough to pull this off (and nor are the GOP)
anon 3:12...nice reply...
WINNING!
No matter what the right believes or tries to deny, the propaganda machine of EB news, anything touched by Murdoch Corp - esp. WSJ & Fox, are doing their best to bend the truth - FACT! More than any other media outlet by far...
The economy is in bad shape because people can't think for themselves anymore. In today's society hard work and dedication is lost. People are rewarded for being lazy and fat with govt handouts for SS, Medicaid, food stamps,etc., etc., etc.
The majority of young people have 0 ambition and its a NOW culture. We want everything now, without the hard work to earn it. That's why other countries are passing the USA by.
I'm not saying people don't need government assistance. I'm saying it is very much abused and gives people 0 motivation to improve.
That's high praise for a single news channel, so much paranoia around Fox News. Liberalism really is a mental disorder.
"WINNING" = saying this proves you are inept at life.
I read nothing beyond that after this little catch phrase. tells me all I need to know
Hey---here's something different--- how about a liberal brings up FOX News?? lol
thanks grandpa,
"the youth of today are lazy and good-for-nuthin'"
"the poor are living off gov't handouts"
"kids have NO ambition"
I heard the same crap 30 years ago...
go back to the old timers home and eat your oatmeal, we'll be just fine.
"Since the end of the recession, government employment--including federal, state, and local jobs--has fallen by roughly 600,000."
http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2011/09/02/public-sector-losses-continue-to-drive-poor-jobs-numbers
A big part of the huge unemployment numbers is cuts to public sector jobs. You know, there is an objective reality out there. Obama or the Boogeyman isn't trying to make everyone work public sector. It is purely ignorant, willfully ignorant or stupid to say so.
Your comment about the "far left European model" is nonsense. You simply have no notion of what constitutes, right, center, left or far left in European politics. To say Obama is following a far left European model is completely disconnected from reality. The US government, and Obama would be considered strongly right wing in Europe.
Here's an example of a European model we should be following:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/frederickallen/2011/12/21/germany-builds-twice-as-many-cars-as-the-u-s-while-paying-its-auto-workers-twice-as-much/
Germany builds twice as many cars as the US, pays its workers twice as much, and nearly all auto workers in Germany are union members. You can read about it in that leftist rag "Forbes Magazine"
"...federal taxes are at their lowest level in more than 60 years."
http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/05/31/are-taxes-in-the-u-s-high-or-low/
Of all the developed countries in the world, the only Chile and Mexico has lower taxes. We are #26 of 28 countries in low taxes.
http://www.ctj.org/pdf/oecd201106.pdf
You guys brought up approval ratings. Hell, this whole back and forth was kicked off by conservative outrage over a sign some dude taped in a window. It's clear from so many falsehoods and distorted beliefs from conservatives here that you are simply taking what you are told by AM radio, Fox News and laser printed signs (and likely comets, goat entrails and the voices in your heads) as truth, or at least use whatever you see to back up your preconceived notions.
Again, Obama extended the Bush tax cuts that were supposed to expire. Any comment on that? Obama is operating like a center-right politician in almost every single way.
And I'll tell all my friends that I first heard about the Rubio/Ryan 2012 ticket here at Sloopin.
maybe if we funded our educational programs the same way we fund bank bailouts, our youth would have a head start (pun intended) over other nations' youths.
Obama is a stand up guy, him and that Blago fella....
Am I the only one that is tired of this "us vs. them" mentality?
We are all in this together.
...and now we're going to be closing this comment thread...
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