More Doctors Are Refusing Medicare Patients Because of Low Government Payments
Posted by Jim Hoft on Monday, June 21, 2010, 5:40 AM
More doctors nationally are refusing to see new Medicare patients due to the low government payment rates.
USA Today reported, via Memeorandum:
The number of doctors refusing new Medicare patients because of low government payment rates is setting a new high, just six months before millions of Baby Boomers begin enrolling in the government health care program.
Recent surveys by national and state medical societies have found more doctors limiting Medicare patients, partly because Congress has failed to stop an automatic 21% cut in payments that doctors already regard as too low. The cut went into effect Friday, even as the Senate approved a six-month reprieve. The House has approved a different bill…
The federal health insurance program for seniors paid doctors on average 78% of what private insurers paid in 2008.
“Physicians are saying, ‘I can’t afford to keep losing money,’ ” says Lori Heim, president of the family doctors’ group.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services says 97% of doctors accept Medicare. The agency doesn’t know how many have refused to take new Medicare patients, Deputy Administrator Jonathan Blum says. “Medicare beneficiaries have good access to physician services. We do have concerns about access to primary care physicians.”
The AARP, the nation’s largest consumer group representing seniors, is taking notice. Some U.S. areas already face a shortage of primary care physicians. Policy director John Rother says the trend away from Medicare threatens to make it worse.
States are starting to see a flight from Medicare…
ADVERTISEMENT
-
Featured Story:
Republican Military Hero & First Female to Command Fighter Squadron Will Announce Run For Congress Today
Published February 8, 2012 at 8:42 pm - 108 Comments
TC Monroe commented:
Wasn’t Oilbama gonna grease their palms???
JKB commented:
But, but congress passed a law, how can care cost more than congress declares? Somethings wrong, look at how effective their changes to the laws of physics were.
mark commented:
We recently changed insurance plans and began looking for new doctors covered under the plan. At least half of the doctors we called “aren’t accepting new patients anymore.” The only ones with openings were those with 25 vowels in their names. Welcome to Obamacare.
ADVERTISEMENT
bitterclinger commented:
If those gutless wonders in the GOP fail to repeal Obamacare before Palin gets in in ’12, I’d hope that we see the docs refuse care as well to the moocher types that voted for him and can’t wait for their “free” medical care.
susan commented:
Sipping from the filthy cup of Social Justice is the poison of Life.
My definition of Social Justice: the religiously irreligious means to sucking out a baby’s brain while piously announcing how such do-gooder intentions righteously serves God’s purpose.
Agent99 commented:
Bitterclinger!! BHO has SAID that YES!! YES!! It IS a TAX! And therefore CANNOT BE REPEALED!! How about That?? BHO is not a Fool afterall. But we will see??
Agent99 commented:
“”SOCIAL MISSION”" Med School Acceptance Scores?? Yep!! Miniority/Ethnic Docs for the Future. NOT by QUALITY but by Social Engineering. http://blogs.wsj.com/health/2010/06/15/social-mission-scores-for-med-school-make-waves/ “”…training the highest quality doctors, regardless of what specialty they ultimately choose or their ethnic mix is a far greater concern. “Social Mission” is just a new euphemism for old school liberal “social engineering”.”
jomojava commented:
How long before physicians will be forbidden to turn away new Medicare patients?
Or perhaps physicians will be required to put up $$$ to help those spurned Medicare patients to find care elsewhere?
Agent99 commented:
On top of existing payment rules, regulations and guidelines, the new law creates numerous new federal agencies, boards and commissions. There are three that have direct relevance to physicians and the practice of medicine, and the nature and scope of the regulatory regime will be decisive.
Under section 6301, the new law creates a “non-profit” Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute. It will be financed through a Patient Centered Outcomes Research Trust Fund, with initial funding starting at $10 million this year, and reaching $150 million annually in Fiscal Year 2013, with additional revenues from insurance fees.
In effect, the Institute will be examining clinical effectiveness of medical treatments, procedures, drugs and medical devices. Much will depend upon how the findings and recommendations are implemented, and whether the recommendations are accompanied by financial incentives or penalties or regulatory requirements.
Agent99 commented:
Under section 3403, there will be an Independent Payment Advisory Board, with 15 members appointed by the president. The goal of the board is to reduce the per capita growth rate in Medicare spending, and make recommendations for slowing growth in non-federal health programs. It’s hard to imagine any other outcome other than continued payment cuts……APPOINTED BY THE PRESIDENT!! Yikes!!
Agent99 commented:
recent polling underscores deep discontent among doctors. For example, according to a recent survey of physicians conducted by Athena Health and Sermo, 79 percent of physicians are less optimistic about the future of medicine; 66 percent indicated that they would consider dropping out of government health programs; and 53 percent would consider opting out of insurance altogether. More ominously, with America already facing a shortage of physicians, particularly in geriatrics and primary care, many physicians also say they would leave the profession. SOURCES are from WSJ http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704122904575315213525018390.html TITLE = OBAMACARE AND IT’S IMPACT ON DOCTORS!
Steve commented:
Bingo #5
kansas commented:
MD’s can refuse to accept medicare and make the patient pay. Some providers under medicare can not do that and their only option is to not see medicare patients. If the see them privately and get paid, it is a violation of federal law. Pretty sure the feds won’t think twice about making it a crime to refuse to see medicare patients and accept what the feds pay.
Neo commented:
Money savings ahead ???
Even the GAO doesn’t seem to know where the remainder of the money went just yet.
Granny commented:
Kansas, you cannot force anyone to work as a physician. Medicine is an art, not a matter of flipping the correct switch. People will simply no longer practice medicine.
This really isn’t a surprise, you know. Medicare reimbursement has been a problem for more than two decades. Reimbursement rates have historically been less than – sometimes substantially less than – private insurance companies rates and payment has been excruciatingly slow, often taking many months or even a year or two. During which time, of course, the physician or medical facility must essentially provide an interest free loan to cover the costs incurred. This “not accepting new patients” is nothing new. It has been going on in Medicaid (government health care for the poor) and the various programs for children for years.
Long before Obamacare, the medical professions were in big trouble with doctors leaving or refusing insurance entirely pretty frequently. There is an entirely new class of doctors that do not take insurance at all.
One myth that has been distributed far and wide in this Obamacare hoopla is that having medical insurance insures that you will have proper health care. Nothing is further from the truth. Insurance and medical care are apples and oranges.
jonyjoe101 commented:
If you are a minority and want to be a doctor, they will overlook your “low scores” and make you a doctor right away. These new doctors will take care of all the medicare patients.
Michael Jackson had an “affirmative action” graduate heart surgeon, his CPR skills where good but not great.
Jerry Magliano commented:
“The AARP, the nation’s largest consumer group representing seniors, is taking notice. Some U.S. areas already face a shortage of primary care physicians. Policy director John Rother says the trend away from Medicare threatens to make it worse.”
It was Mr. Rother and his fellow morons at the AARP that fully supported Obamacare knowing full well the $500 billion in Medicare cuts that are part of this “reform” would have a devastating effect on the health care of seniors. The AARP is no longer a seniors advocacy organization unless what they are advocating for supports more growth in their insurance businesses. They have used their financial power and mailing list to morph into and insurance brokerage. Informed seniors will dump them and move on to organizations who really care about them.
T. Shaw commented:
Obamacare isn’t about health care.
It’s about displacing private health decision-making and financing with the government controlling $2 trillion more, it’s so tens of millions of new dem voters can get it free.
GOP/teaparty: Just say you will repeal health care and expose the lies: you will own both houses of congress.
Finncrisp commented:
If AARP is on the case.we can count on those Barry lovin folks to call for early enactment of death care as the solution. No thanks! Repeal DEATHCARE. We don’t need no stinking DEATHCARE!
Scott M commented:
Assuming this monstrosity (Obamacare) doesn’t get repealed, how long before doctors will be threatened with the same logic as pharmacists and the morning-after pill?
xxx commented:
This is happening in LA, so this is real. Ofraud’s plan works well. It is the democrats.
DocScience commented:
At least now we know what that legislation to establish Obama’s national medical corps(e) was for.
Who needs liberty when we can draft and enslave those who refuse to serve the state?
Robert commented:
This is the trap that the media allowed the Democrats
to avoid during the “health care” vote.
If they reduce pay to doctors, they will lose doctors.
If they pay the doctors, then the legislation goes over budget.
Oscar commented:
A few thoughts/predictions:
(1) The insurance “mandate” forces individuals to engage in commerce in which they otherwise might not engage. If the Supreme Court finds that the mandate is constitutional, then it follows that the FEDGOV can mandate anyone, at any time, to engage in economic activity in which they otherwise would not engage. That includes physicians. Ergo, if the FEDGOV can mandate individuals to purchase health insurance, it can also mandate physicians to accept patients/provide medical care. [The only option physicians will have will be to emigrate and give up U.S. citizenship.]
(2) The GOP leadership is too gutless to repeal ObamaCare. It will NOT be repealed. You can count on that; make your plans accordingly. The Dems and the MSM will pull out all the stops to save Obama’s “legacy”, and it will get ugly. The GOP will make gains in November (I expect that much), but watch them run away from repeal as soon as the polls close.
(3) The GOP will go back to “good ol’ boy” mode for 2012. We are going to end up either with Mitt Romney or Mike Huckabee as the nominee. Romney has been working behind the scenes since the 2008 election; and Huckabee is testing the waters with a pathetic spread in Vanity Fair. Obama will get a second term.
Dennis commented:
AARP was in the bag for Obambi care.