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I thought you guys wanted to get welfare across the board to balance the budget? Why are you suddenly against cutting one of the biggest entitlement programs in the country? Oh, I know why
Against it? Who said I was against it?
We, as physicians, simply see very few, if any, medicare patients. This, for me, will result in higher revenues for our clinic, as we simply break even with medicare.
Who loses? Medicare patients with markedly reduced access to specialists. Did anyone really think that cutting $750 billion from medicare would have no consequences?
This post is full of misconceptions. Please show examples where doctors will get 50% less per procedure. Which procedures? The $750 billion was a Romney claim but it's a reduction in the rate of growth over 10 years. The Medicare budget is still going up each year. Officially the budget for payments to doctors has been cut every year for the past 10 years but in practice Congress overrides or fixes these cuts (cuts that they authorized) so they don't happen.
1. The 30% medicare proposed cuts are evaluated every year. Every year, those cuts have been postponed (so far). Those cuts are across the board for all practitioners.
2. Every year, medicare makes changes in reimbursement for every specialty. The most common procedures we do were cut 60%. Smaller cuts were made in less common procedures. Physical therapy, neurosurgery and orthopedics suffered similar reductions in common procedures/surgeries.
3.You want to know the 2013 vs 2014 payment scales for each procedure/surgery? Look them up- they are a part of the public record. However, baseline medicare reimbursement is different for every state.
4. The E/M codes for office visits are only subject to the annual 30% cuts that are proposed each year. Let's see if those go through (usually they do not). If they do pass, then medicare patients will not even be able to see internists or family practice docs, as access will be limited.
You say the medicare budget is going up every year. Well, I can tell you it is not going to us. Without physician access, it is hard to get healthcare. Good luck to those patients, as their lives have suddenly become more difficult.
We, as physicians, simply see very few, if any, medicare patients. This, for me, will result in higher revenues for our clinic, as we simply break even with medicare.
Who loses? Medicare patients with markedly reduced access to specialists. Did anyone really think that cutting $750 billion from medicare would have no consequences?
In other words, you want us all to pay more taxes and you want higher government spending so that you can keep paying yourself a high salary.
Otherwise, you have no interest in treating the elderly.
Easy. Because the Medicare/Social Security constituency is the biggest GOP voting bloc in the country. GOP wouldn't dare cut their own voters off at the knees
First off, Social Security is not an entitlement. Secondly, blame the DNC and Johnson for pushing through Medicare in hopes of creating a stepping stone to single payer centralized healthcare.
After everything is said and done doctors and hospital in the US will be paid more for every procedure than they will be in any other country in the world. One sign that we are lowering health care costs is when doctors, hospitals and pharmaceuticals start complaining. Doctors have been working around low reimbursements for years by churning procedures and readmitting patients into hospitals. The amount of fraud in Medicare is staggering from hospitals, to doctors, to equipment providers. No body ever goes to prison. Just pay back the government if you get caught.
At same time liberal youth groups on college campuses are running petitions to sign pledging not to sign up for Obamacare; they call unfair to younger people.
First off, Social Security is not an entitlement. Secondly, blame the DNC and Johnson for pushing through Medicare in hopes of creating a stepping stone to single payer centralized healthcare.
theunbrainwashed is antithetical, isn't it?
SS and Medicare are both entitlements as is VA and Tricare. I dont need to go back and blame Johnson though. During 2010 the Republicans ran to the left of Democrats on Medicare. Might as well call it Republicare..Republicans are still talking about killing the ACA and putting money back into Medicare. Never mind that its already an entitlement for the middle class where means testing starts at $170,000 for a couple.
Just got the news of the medicare reimbursements for 2014. Across many specialties, there are up to 50% cuts in procedures and surgeries (not office visits). These cuts will affect, of course, specialists rather than internists or primary care docs.
With such cuts, practices accepting medicare would lose money on every patient. Further, many insurance contracts are pegged to percentages of medicare.
Gee.............. I wonder what will happen to medicare patient access over 2014? When looting $750 billion from medicare to fund Obamacare, did anyone really think that there would not be a decline in quality and access for medicare patients?
The ACA made some pretty deep cuts to Medicare, but if you're seeing that deep of a cut to specific procedures and surgeries in 2014 that's probably an issue of relative value unit (or equivalent for whatever area) change, not just the ACA/sequestration/etc. cuts.
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