Not that unusual for a segment of doctors in a community to deal almost entirely with medicare patients. Certain diseases are almost exclusive to people who are age 60+, and some doctors are located in retirement communities.
Let’s see, get rid of doctors? Or get rid of Medicare?
Yeah, that’s the reason Obamacare is sh*t. It’s the doctors.
Up yours, Rueters.
Uh, yeah. This has been public knowledge since the early 80s when the entire medical system started coding illnesses and injuries and determined how long a stay and what procedures and equipment.
It was widely stated that MDs had bled the system dry.
Of course it was a stupid system to start with.
Like in depending on foreign oil, the system has continued until this, and it’s still chugging along, now as obamacare.
I don’t hear this much, but there really is no way this thing is going to work. Ted Cruz is the very and only one speaking about this with any kind of sanity.
anyway, we’ve known this all along. And by the way, medicaire has maintained firmly our medical system’s problematic way of functioning - thriving on sick people, MDs taking over domain of our bodies, and actually taking away domain.
It has spun up an dout of control and there will be no money, no research, no new cures, no good doctors, clinics, It will not work no way.
Geeze to think theyre out with this headline It’s from the 80s, this knowledge. Under the Reagan administration
So 5 out of 303 “clinicians” were found to be engaged in questionable billing. That leaves >98% appropriate billing. But the EVIL spectre has been affixed to those EVIL doctors.
I actually applaud the auditors for using a reasonable methodology for locating bad apples. (Of course, guilt is yet to be determined in a court of law.)
I think until the country caves to accept a single payer system we will hear increasingly shrill accusations leveled against the medical community and those insurers who can manage to hang on in the face of increasing regulations.
bookmark
Sure, the crooked doctors and providers con the taxpayers out of not just millions, but hundreds of millions... While the honest ones are lucky to break even.
True story:
When my mother was in a ‘nursing home’, a visiting podiatrist came in and clipped her toenails (I usually did it for her, but I was away that week) He charged Medicare $8,000.00 for “Foot Surgery”. I reported him to Medicare, but they didn’t care. They told me: “If you can get him to write us a letter admitting to fraud, then we will take the money back from him.”.
Then her ‘physical therapy’ sessions, which consisted of tossing a ball back and forth between her, the ‘therapist’ and the 5-7 other patients in each session, resulted in charges to Medicare of up to $400 per hour. And I assume that the ‘therapist’ charged similar amounts for each patient in those group sessions.
Medicare didn’t care about that either, when I told them what was going on.
These are probably specialists like orthopedic surgeons doing hip/knee replacements and ophthalmologists doing cataract surgery.
Here’s the moneyline:
Topping Medicare’s list was Florida ophthalmologist Salomon Melgen, whose relationship with Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., made headlines last year after news broke that the lawmaker used the doctor’s personal jet for trips to the Dominican Republic. Medicare paid Melgen $20.8 million.
http://news.yahoo.com/database-docs-getting-millions-medicare-071303908—politics.html
Dave 31 minutes ago 0 3
Im in a 20+ group of ophthalmologists, and I cant wrap my head around billing more than a million to medicare per doctor as a high max, and most of us bill about half that and that amount doesnt even cover overhead per doc, because of expensive high tech equipment and trained personnel needed to run it, dependent on other insurances. Eye surgeons get paid a standard fee per state for cataract surgery, typically about $650 to $700 per case, you can google the amount, and cataract surgery has a high overhead. The hospital/surgery center fee is much higher, but that goes to the hospital.
I read that $21 million or even the $3 million and not possible....this guy is clearly not practicing ophthalmology, he must own several hospitals or a very busy one or ambulatory surgery centers. Either that or he personally sees thousands of patients per day, ie not possible. I would be willing to bet each one of those billing that much is from owning surgery centers that many other surgeons operate at and most of that goes to overhead, otherwise, just not possible to bill anywhere near that amount practicing ophthalmology.