Posted on 10/27/2009 7:21:16 AM PDT by rightwingintelligentsia
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Medicare has become a scary word to the doctors at the largest private group practice in Kansas City, Mo.
It's so scary that most physicians at Kansas City Internal Medicine, with 65% of its nearly 70,000 active patients age 65 or older, have stopped accepting walk-in Medicare enrollees, said Dr. David Wilt, an internist at the group.
Wilt and his colleagues say they are shunning the area's growing senior population because they believe Medicare doesn't reimburse physicians enough to cover the cost of care.
"And if Medicare further cuts its reimbursement rates, then we'll be functioning at a loss," said Wilt.
Wilt -- and doctors with lots of senior patients -- are especially troubled by a 21% cut in Medicare payments to physicians scheduled to take place in 2010. Last week, the Senate voted against stopping that cut, and more annual cuts over the next decade, from taking place.
"If the [21%] cut happens, that cut in our payments will exceed our profits. The only option to us to stay in business will be to fire employees," Wilt said.
(Excerpt) Read more at money.cnn.com ...
All this from the fat cats cruising on our tax dollars with Cadillac health care, giving themselves a 5% raise, and Madame Pelosi cruising on our 747 weekly to and from CA.
I am infuriated!
vaudine
....my Doctor ordered in 3000 rounds of .45ACP...that’s how little he trusts Washington.
All they have to do is work more efficiently. The President sez so.
We will have, like in the UK, two medical systems. One for the masses and one for the well-to-do.
Not ‘cuts’ silly, ‘cost saving’. (Obama speak) It’s only ‘cuts’ when republicans proposed them not when caring democrats do (or vice versa, you know politics.)
Who do these doctors think they are? They’re going to have to suck it up, work longer hours and take less money for it. What a bunch of prima donas. And don’t even think about quitting. We’ve got re-education camps - I’m mean courses - already planned for you, if you try. We didn’t give you those white coats for nothing. The Bureau of Medicine (BM) will decide when you can have some time with your family and a weekend off. Now get back in there and do your job, Dr. Slave, and quit whinning.
Hey, where’d all those pre-med and med students go????>
My in-laws use medicare and are scrambling these days to find affordable, additional insurance to cover the rest of their medical needs.
And they’re both pretty healthy! I think they each take one med each for blood pressure and thyroid. They have switched providers three times these past two years, as the ‘free’ supplemental insurances for Seniors (Humana, etc.) suddenly start charging upwards of $200 a month.
And stop chopping off people’s limbs . . .
Obama may have in mind nationalizing the medical community, as in England and a number of other countries. I read that availability is so bad in Britain that they import doctors from Europe to cover weekends.
My uncle is a urologist in Florida. He has made less money each consecutive year, for the past ten years. They can prove in their books that this is from Medicaid. All this time, my uncle’s malpractice insurance premiums keep rising. A patient is currently suing him because he went into heart failure on the operating table (he is okay now, obviously). The patient had the same problem on a previous surgery, but did not disclose this to my uncle. Even though the man can’t prove that my uncle did anything wrong AND he has a previous history that he did not disclose, he might still win.
Because they believe Medicare doesn't reimburse physicians enough?! This is not a matter of "belief." Either it does or it doesn't, and the physicians are the ones who would know it best.
my doctor has very big and somewhat nasty signs posted in his waiting room. “Absolutely No More Medicare Patients being accepted at this time”.
I was kind of mad at him until I learned what their reimbusements were like.
“You ain’t seen anything yet! Wait until 0b0z0 care passes and the Rahm thugs take away another 25% of Medicare fees from the doctors.”
Most of the local doctors don’t take new Medicare patients. If long time patients become Medicare patients, most doctors will keep them as patients.
We have met two new couples to the area, who aren’t poor but were Medicare. They could not find a doctor to take them into their practice. So they opted for Concierge
Doctors. Who charge $2500 cash up front per year for each patient. The patients have to handle any extra lab, xray and other costs out of their pocket and must deal with Medicare and any supplementary insurance for those costs.
Most of the conservative and even politically independent Docs we know in their 60’s will retire when 0b0z0 care becomes the law.
Even the liberal boomer docs are saying they might retire earlier to spend more time with their families. They are not honest enough to say “0b0z0 care will destroy my life long profession!”
My folks are provided their medi-gap through retiree benefits. Their deductibles under that plan have soared, and their med costs (since Medicare D came into effect) have risen too.
I think their deductible on the medigap policy is now upwards of $2000 per person, whereas before, it was a pretty simple what medicare didn’t pay, the medigap policy did. Now they have the deductible, then after that there’s a 20 percent pay on every portion of the bill that medicare doesn’t pay, till they reach their yearly out of pocket...which is 3500 per person, IIRC.
Doctors will not work for free or for low wages. A lot will retire. The other problem is that many docs won’t provide substandard care ordered by a central government committee of health care to any targeted group or individuals. They will not hurt people to be in compliance with Obamacare. The ones remaining will have an ethical system that is something akin to fascists.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.