Health Care Happenings

The doc’s are weighing in heavily on the impending 21% cut in Medicare payments. Many of us have experienced the message effects of the American Medical Association’s (AMA) multi-million dollar advertising campaign featured in full page adds in most of the major newspapers in this country, as well as on television and radio. The message is abundently clear in its criticism of the Senate for adjourning for its Memorial Day recess without acting to cancel the reimbursement cut.

As of the time of this blog writing, the Senate is not expected to hold any votes until next week. Even then it is unclear what action the Senate will ultimately take on this particurlar issue. It will prove extremely difficult to pass a payment fix over a year in length as there is no way to pay for it now. Thus, we may very well be in for a series of month to month fixes.

What does this mean for many of our doctors in practice and also for many of us – the patients who recieve our care from these doctors? – Remember, TRICARE reimbursement is tied to Medicare’s rate of doctor reimbursement for services, so many of our military families and retiree’s are at risk as well as our age 65 and over members.

The AMA just released a survey of over 9,000 doctors who take care of Medicare patients. Based on this they confirm that beneficiaries are being hurt by Congress’s failure to fix the physician payment system.

The survey found that 17% of doctors said they have been forced to limit the number of Medicare patients in their practice. Nearly one-third of primary care physicians have been forced to take that action, the survey found.

“The top two reasons physicians gave for these actions were the ongoing threat of future cuts and the fact that Medicare payment rates were already too low,” again according to the AMA.

This becomes more than concerning when you view many physicians practices as a “small business”. Which is really what they are and it becomes quite simply an issue of cash-flow. This reimbursement problem creates payment instability and is forcing some doctors to cut their staffs, take out loans, and defer payments on equipment. It also makes it very difficult for them to purchase the equipment for health reform’s requirement’s in the area of health technology. Think electronic medical records.

We at MOAA continue to watch these developments closely. We ask you to let us know if you experience access problems with your doctor as a result of this reimbursement issue.