Posted on 07/11/2010 3:07:27 PM PDT by Kaslin
AUSTIN – Doctors in the Dallas area and across Texas are threatening to opt out of Medicaid because of payment cuts, which would further damage the state's already uneven delivery of health care to the poor.
The 1 percent trim to provider fees that starts Sept. 1 sounds modest. But doctors, insurance industry officials and health care experts widely see it as the first of many hits coming to doctors' wallets as Texas' fiscal woes deepen.
State leaders' instructions for agencies to identify additional 10 percent budget cuts in the next two-year budget cycle mean more fee cuts may come next summer. Experts say further reductions could drive off doctors, dump more patients on hospital emergency rooms and ensure a rocky start for the federal health care overhaul, which by conservative estimates could add 1.5 million Texans to Medicaid by 2015.
The cut demonstrates a potentially recurring problem with budget cuts as state leaders contemplate a shortfall that could hit $18 billion: Cuts that lawmakers make now to programs that are already stretched thin could cause deeper long-term woes.
Obstetrician Lou Montanaro of Carrollton said he wants to stay in the Medicaid program, barring draconian cuts. Still, despite a quarter-century of seeing Medicaid patients, Montanaro says Texas' low reimbursements have forced him to limit the type of Medicaid patients he takes: Pregnant women, yes; other women seeking gynecological care, no.
Because eligibility rules are tight, most Texas women don't qualify for Medicaid coverage unless they're pregnant or disabled, Montanaro said, and disabled women's complex medical conditions overwhelm his solo practice.
In Denton County, he said, few doctors tolerate Medicaid's low fees, and "we have no place to refer" those with debilitating illnesses and physical disabilities.
(Excerpt) Read more at dallasnews.com ...
I saw a new doctor last week. He mentioned concern his office had over uncertainty about the new health care law. I think we are all in a holding pattern, waiting to see what’s going to happen. It is very disconcerting that our government can basically hold us hostage. It’s easy to say, well, just pay for your own medical coverage, but it’s not that simple. Government meddling and insurance has driven costs up over the past 30 or 40 years.
The big insurance companies supported Obamacare. Now why would they do that? /s
By law, like it or not, we’ll all have health insurance.
What we won’t have is health care access.
I know a doctor who is about ready to leave the biz because after working his morning shift on just medicare patients, the govt. pays him so little that by the time he pays his helpers he is left with $100 for half a days work - he said “I can’t live on that”
Give existing patients on Medicaid (and Medicare) vouchers, and they can pay doctors directly out of it or buy their own insurance. Both programs are unsustainable and breed dependency.
Hmmmmmm...... Tis a puzzlement.... ;)
“I know a doctor who is about ready to leave the biz because after working his morning shift on just medicare patients, the govt. pays him so little that by the time he pays his helpers he is left with $100 for half a days work - he said “I can’t live on that””
Not to worry, I’m sure Obama will give out stimulus programs to third world doctors to work here really cheap:)
Medicaid, not Medicare. I believe those rates are set by the states.
“What we won’t have is health care access.”
yeah but it’ll be free
Of course. We will have access to mediocre care. I grew up a military brat. We could go see a doctor if we were sick. We waited and waited (unless we were bleeding on their floor, then we were usually seen fairly quickly). Sometimes the doctors were pretty good, but mostly they were not so good. Once I was very sick as an infant. My Dad took me in 3 times with a high fever and 3 times the doctors said I just had a bad cold and told them to just give me aspirin. The last time I could barely breath, (Dad says I was on deaths door). Dad threw a fit and they finally admitted me to the hospital. I had double pneumonia. I was in an oxygen tent for several days and nearly died. That’s the kind of care I suspect we will end up with.
Medicaid = health care for illegals.
Give existing patients on Medicaid (and Medicare) vouchers, and they can pay doctors directly out of it or buy their own insurance. Both programs are unsustainable and breed dependency.”
Do you see the contradiction here? Neither group is entitled to have thugs calling themselves “the government” loot others for their benefit. No vouchers...nothing.
“...uneven delivery of health care to the poor”
OK, even it up and give them what they are entitled to - nothing.
It will be worse than that.
Joe McCarthy checked into Walter Reed and never left. Another anti-commie had the same thing happen.
Whatever happened to charity hospitals? Didn’t they used to be funded by charities and donors?
I admit, I do worry about that kind of thing. I also think that if you are old and sick, you should have someone you trust (in my case my husband) with you at all times. I guess I’m getting cynical, but I don’t trust that other people will have my best interests at heart.
I said “existing” patients. Take care of the ones on it now and let younger and middle-aged workers pay for their own benefits.
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