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Texas doctors are opting out of Medicare at alarming rates, frustrated by reimbursement cuts they say make participation in government-funded care of seniors unaffordable.
With no fix in sight and 20% pay cuts on the horizon in a few weeks, this is only going to get worse. Just government manipulation of fee schedules and establishing price controls over the healthcare industry.
Medicare is horrible,...but just wait until the other shoe drops with obamacare.....
With no fix in sight and 20% pay cuts on the horizon in a few weeks, this is only going to get worse. Just government manipulation of fee schedules and establishing price controls over the healthcare industry.
Medicare is horrible,...but just wait until the other shoe drops with obamacare.....
The "20% pay cuts" was due to legislation kicked around by congress since '97. I had a link but lost it. Congress keeps extending it but doesn't make it permanent (for some reason). They just recently, beginning of April, extended it again. In short, nothing whatsoever to do with the health care law.
Your "Just government manipulation of fee schedules" is laughable . Hate to barge in on your conspiracy but that's EXACTLY what insurance companies do. It's called "usual and customary" amount. Short version, dictating an amount (fee)(set by them for the most part) that hospitals/doctors/dentists should be charging for any given procedure based on a given area. Gubment, needless to say, usual and customary amount is less.
The "20% pay cuts" was due to legislation kicked around by congress since '97. I had a link but lost it. Congress keeps extending it but doesn't make it permanent (for some reason). They just recently, beginning of April, extended it again. In short, nothing whatsoever to do with the health care law.
Your "Just government manipulation of fee schedules" is laughable . Hate to barge in on your conspiracy but that's EXACTLY what insurance companies do. It's called "usual and customary" amount. Short version, dictating an amount (fee)(set by them for the most part) that hospitals/doctors/dentists should be charging for any given procedure based on a given area. Gubment, needless to say, usual and customary amount is
less.
For sure a doh moment for wingers. They're complaining about a lot of the stuff they passed. Oh, the horror.
The Dem's tried in '09 to fix the formula problem, but per usual actions and cry-baby ways the Repub's hemmed and hawed and stalled any progress or inertia to move forward on the issue. Now they're crying because the butchers bill is due, and it's their own fault.
The Republican leadership of Congress and President Bill Clinton have released the initial details of their plan to balance the federal budget by 2002 and provide modest tax cuts for hardworking Americans. Each new detail that comes out, however, confirms that this is a deal based on $300 billion in questionable assumptions that mask a substantial growth in the size and scope of the federal government. Moreover, while the President's agenda is revealed explicitly in the documents accompanying the agreement, the congressional agenda is left largely up to the imagination. Taxpayers are being asked to accept bigger government in exchange for the promise of a "balanced budget" and a small cut in their taxes.
Yes...I do believe the phrase you're looking for is "Being hung upon your own petard".
Have a great REPUBLICAN medicare payment cut to doctors day!
If this isn't a phony trend story I don't know what is.
There are over 60,000 licensed physicians in Texas (http://http://www.tmdpublishing.com/physicians.htm - broken link).
By contrast, in December, 2008, the Texas Medical Board licensed 479 new physicians (http://http://www.dallasfortworthinjurylawyer.com/2008/12/texas_medical_board_discipline_2.html - broken link).
I don't see the evidence of a huge trend of losing Medicare participating physicians.
A little taste of what we can expect in the coming years before obamacare kicks in.
Quote:
If the scheduled 21.2 percent cut goes through, they'd net $72, effectively an 83 percent cut since 2001.
The issue caused the Texas Medical Association to break ranks with the American Medical Association and oppose health care reform efforts throughout 2009. Then TMA President Dr. William Fleming said “reform is doomed to failure” without Medicare reform and called Congress' failure to devise a rational payment plan “an insult to seniors, people with disabilities and military families.”
At this rate our seniors are going to have a very hard time finding a doctor.
They just won't accept assignment (what Medicare agrees to pay for any given service). They will take cash though
Sign that agreement with your Doc, they will be more than
happy to see you.
When my cousin in Texas turned 65 a few years ago, it took her months to find a doctor who would accept them as Medicare patients. Another friend in AL had a similar experience when her doctor dumped all his Medicare patients. It also took her months to find a new doctor and then another 2 months for her first appointment. She was a newly diagnosed diabetic, too.
A little taste of what we can expect in the coming years before obamacare kicks in.
Disaster.
The payment reduction formula for Medicare enacted by Congress was done LONG before Obama was EVER in the picture. Docs started opting out of Medicare big time as far back as 2001.
-AMA President James Rohack on Monday said costs will continue to rise if Congress continues to rely on short-term fixes to the formula.
Rohack on Monday said, "It's time for Congress to put aside the short-term actions that have more than quadrupled the price of a solution for American taxpayers and fix the problem once and for all for seniors, military families and their physicians" - CongressDaily
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. Hate to barge in on your conspiracy but that's EXACTLY what insurance companies do. It's called "usual and customary" amount. Short version, dictating an amount (fee)(set by them for the most part) that hospitals/doctors/dentists should be charging for any given procedure based on a given area. Gubment, needless to say, usual and customary amount is less.
