Posted on 06/18/2010 12:55:17 PM PDT by edpc
WASHINGTON – The Senate passed legislation Friday to spare doctors a 21 percent cut in Medicare payments — but the last-ditch effort did not come in time.
Moments after the Senate acted, Medicare announced it would begin processing claims it has already received for June at the lower rate. The reason: the House cannot act on the fix until next week.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Until that is made illegal.
Exactly. My specialty is mainly geriatric patients, and I'm in a small town and practice and bill extremely conservatively.
This is going to put us out of business, literally. More than 75% of my practice is based on the Medicare fee schedule. We don't have enough gross income to absorb a hit like this.
So now what would the CBO price the monstrosity of 0bamacare? By the time it gets implemented (lets keep praying it gets overturned after November) in 2014, the cost will be up to several trillion bucks. Just chump change.
I was “hoping” he would “change” his modus operandi.
Take two aspirin and call me after the elections.
Okay then.
Hey Dr. Cecil B. Wilson of the AMA, you stupid f*ck, it was YOUR organization that endorsed Obamacare which INCLUDED a reduction in Medicare payments to docs to make it look like it would reduce the deficit. Now STFU and live with it.
Sure, they’ll try and ram it through the lame-duck Congress, which will have any number of soon-to-be-former members. The Democrats have no scruples, and they don’t care about the opinions of the American public.
If only it was working for free. At current rates, the doc will actually pay to see the average medicare patient. Even before the 21% cut medicare reimbursement did not pay for the cost of the care.
This was left out of ObamaCare on purpose to keep the CBO number below $1 trillion. The real cost of ObamaCare will probably be 3 times that amount.
And another thing: Democrats know, and planned all along, that the part about requiring people to buy insurance will be ruled unconstitutional, so the government will have to pay the coverage for these people, taking us very close to their desired outcome of a single-payer system.
Yep. The docs need to be paid, but we really need to transition away from Medicare. The government holds Medicare over the docs and hospitals head as a bludgeon to get them to go along with whatever the hell they want (witness the way the AMA and the AHA caved into Obama on Obamacare).
OK. I know there are many different “forms of government.” Whcih kind is it where the gummint can tell you AFTER YOU HAVE PERFORMED SERVICES FOR IT that your reimbursement will be different than what was negotiated?
Lou, I think this is why everyone was so down at your wife’s office.
Yep. It distorts markets and the only cost control mechanism is to cut docs' compensation. Medicare Advantage was a step in the right direction, which is why Zero is gutting it.
I think AMA membership is down to an all time low because of this. I canceled my membership after being a card-carrying member for 20 years.
I'll muddle through I guess but this is going to kill PCPs. The Dems can't blame this one on Bush (well, they can but they won't get anywhere trying).
Try 75% overhead. That is what my practice has. Why you say. Well when 60% of your patients are Medicaid or Medicare there is not much bacon left to eat. WE CAN NOT keep our practice open with this cut. My employee will now have to re- do a month of .gov work to get our money late. I wonder if my employees will can if they do not got paid for a paycheck or two. How about the electric bill etc. This is BAD, BAD BAD.
“Death Panels” is a euphemism for this very thing. The Oprah viewer types hear “Death Panel” and think of a group of people ordering the death of someone and say “oh that’s so silly that’ll never happen”. But after all is said and done, denial of coverage to the elderly RESULTS in their deaths. So, “death panel”?? YES, DEATH PANEL.
Yes, thanks so much. I suppose at this point we can only hope conservatives sweep the next elections and they repeal this travesty.
These jerks couldn’t even fix Medicare before taking over the entire healthcare industry.
Exactly we’ll muddle through as specialists but PCP’s will get hammered. Their margins are so tight as it is.
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