[will_brown]

>The best thing for the doctor is to get paid (and pay taxes on) $400.

No...the best thing is for the doctor to not upset the insurance company and get dropped from their network and lose all their patients.

Remember the famous line if you like your insurance/doctor you can keep your insurance/doctor. Turns out the president has no control over whether insurance will outright drop doctors from their networks.

As to your point on accounting, it simply depends on the doctors/hospitals accounting practices. It’s possible there is no deduction as you say (no big deal to the doctor, they got paid their fee anyway) or they can use an actual method of accounting and carry the loss forward.

[froindt]

> or they can use an actual method of accounting and carry the loss forward

Yep, it's been 7 years since I took an accounting class (and it shows). Thanks for adding that.

[will_brown]

Sorry I meant “accrual method of accounting” auto corrected to “actual”...looks like you caught my gist.