Bend Over - Medicare Is Fluffed And Ready

Hoover  3 Sep, 2007  Physicians

Medicare is “a program under the U.S. Social Security Administration that reimburses hospitals and physicians for medical care provided to qualifying people over 65 years old.”

Everybody pays into the Medicare bucket — if you pay taxes that is. In other words, you’re paying for those non-compliant diabetics who have to undergo dialysis and lower extremity amputations.

“I can’t be bothered to stick my finger every flippin’ day, take those damn blue pills, or not eat sugar. Hell, I’ve been drinking sweet tea every day for fitty years!”

“But Mr. Robertson, you could suffer from some very serious complications if you don’t manage your diabetes.”

“Naw. Ma pa had da sugar disease and he did OK. Lived to be 95 and ate biscuits n’ gravy every mornin’. That sugar disease don’t affect me or my family.”

You’re paying for these incompetent idiots. Doesn’t that piss you off? It certainly gets under my skin.

Medicare Likes Games

Take a look at this recent article from the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons:

If the provision survives, physicians would get a 0.5% pay increase in 2008 and 2009, instead of projected cuts of 9.9% and 5.0%.

Before you get too excited:

The tiny physician payment increases would be offset by 11% cuts in 2010 and 2011. Specialty societies report that the various cost-control schemes will pit physicians against each other—for example, it sets up an advisory panel to re-do Relative Value Units (RVUs) for “over-valued” services.

Let’s take a look at some basic math. Pay increases of 0.5% per year for two years instead of projected cuts of 9.9% and 5.0% This is a net increase of 15.9% However, cuts in 2010 and 2011 add up to 22%, leaving physicians with a net pay decrease of 6.1% Factor in inflationary costs and docs are pedaling backwards.

Other changes include abolishing “Health Opportunity Acounts,” the provision that allows HSA-programs in Medicaid; repealing a provision of the Medicare Modernization Act that restricts the use of general revenues to fund Medicare; and raises fees of certified nurse midwives to equal those of obstetricians. There is a plethora of new requirements that enrich some interest groups and kill off others.

Democrats plan to pay for the bill by boosting federal tobacco taxes and hiking taxes on insurance companies by $2 per person.

On the whole, the bill contains “the most sweeping changes in decades” to American medicine—changes that will affect every American, stated Rep. John Shadegg (R-AZ). It marks a sharp turn away from a re-invigorated private market and toward government-run medicine.

Watch out. Physicians are poised to be the next government employee. Ask any government worker: The paychecks suck.

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8 Comments so far »

  1. Jake said

    September 6 2007 @ 11:50 pm

    Physicians ARE slated to become government employees. But we’ll only get the sucky paychecks, and none of the perks of a government job.

  2. Hoover said

    September 7 2007 @ 7:55 am

    Let’s hope it doesn’t end up that way, but if the Dems get into office I think it’ll happen sooner rather than later.

  3. Kypdurron5 said

    September 7 2007 @ 7:58 am

    Only those physicians which participate with Medicare are affected. Many physicians where I live have already stopped accepting new Medicare patients; if Medicare actually manages to get worse than it is right now, physicians can react by simply not participating with Medicare and instead shifting the focus of their practice. The collective outcry from physicians will be heard, and it will only get louder as Medicare looses its already tenuous grip on the reality of healthcare.

  4. Shining Hector said

    September 7 2007 @ 10:51 am

    And then the collective outcry of AARP will be heard much louder as seniors demand access to care, and lawmakers are given the choice of a quick fix that will make most happy in time for reelection or sweeping and painful reforms to try and make the whole pyramid scheme work. Opting out of Medicare only works until accepting Medicare patients becomes a requirement for licensure.

  5. Tim said

    November 8 2007 @ 1:44 pm

    Im disabled and have to have medicare not by choice, I have done everything I can to help myself. Im not 1 of the people wasteing medicare. but because of them I get second rate healthcare at best. my doctor dropped me when his pratice stopped takeing medicare, where does that leave me?? looking for a doctor to take medicare? Well I had to call the help line to find a doctor in my area, there are 2. I live in Sarasota Florida which has more doctors than cops, but only 2 take medicare. Medicare is not insurance and really doesnot help me at all, it just takes $94 a month out of my $610 disabuilty check. Its strange to hear people bash medicare that have never had to rely on it. They truly have a very narrow view.

  6. Tim said

    November 8 2007 @ 1:51 pm

    Really sounds like a bunch of doctors venting on this site. If you became a doctor to make fat cash, you did it for the wrong reasons. and since I have been studing medicine from all over the world, I have concluded that, doctors in many many other countries are better skilled more experienced and knowledgeable. And they make much less that doctors here in the USA.
    I have yet to hear them complaine or whine over money like doctors do here.

  7. Hoover said

    November 8 2007 @ 10:35 pm

    Tim, I’m sorry that you’re having a difficult time with Medicare. No doubt there are people that certainly need Medicare and others that are wasteful, which drives people like yourself out of coverage. I think that shows some of the weaknesses in the system.

    Put yourself in the place of some of these physicians that read this site. They’ve trained incredibly hard for many, many years and many of them have gone into large amounts of debt so that they may serve the public by offering health care services.

    The bottom line is that they deserve to be compensated well for the amount of training and the knowledge required to practice medicine. We’re not talking about a job in construction, where skills can be acquired in a matter of weeks. To even be allowed to practice medicine legally in the U.S. requires years of training.

    Year after year physicians see cuts in payments from Medicare — and more and more physicians will cut Medicare patients from their practice as the payouts get lower and lower. It’s not that they don’t care for the patients, but just like in any business the bottom line is money.

  8. Decider said

    November 19 2007 @ 3:08 am

    Its coming ladies and gents. In 5 yrs 60 million americans will enter Medicare. Where will they pull the money out of this time? The past decade with its persistent(ternderization)cuts in reimbursement will soften the final blow. Every year it becomes more difficult to cover your expenses.
    Did you read the Commonwealth Foundation Study? It costs Medicare on average $1000 more per year to treat an HMO/Medicare patient. I thought they were suppose to save money. On the contrary, they look for ways to add higher coding diagnosis to they elderly patients to then extract it from medicare.
    The end is near. Run for that MBA now

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