Dehumanizing doctors
July 1st, 2008 | by Brian Schwartz |
Problem: Doctors may stop seeing Medicare patients because the reimbursement rates are so low.
The solution? At least one blog commenter wants to make Medicare the only game in town so doctors either put up or shut up.
Bloomberg News reports:
James King, a doctor in Selmer, Tenn., doesn’t take new Medicare patients. More physicians may do the same if Congress can’t find a way to block a scheduled cut in Medicare fees that begins Tuesday, he said.
With physician reimbursements set to drop 10 percent, doctors will begin evaluating whether to stay in Medicare, said King, 53, president of the American Academy of Family Physicians. He stopped accepting new Medicare patients last year when cuts were last considered.
And from U.S. News and World Report:
People who think that their problems will be over when they qualify for Medicare may be in for a nasty surprise. In some places where Medicare reimbursements have slid below those of commercial insurers, particularly in the South and West and in rural areas, more and more doctors are refusing to take new seniors—and even dropping longtime patients when they turn 65. In Oregon, for example, the number of primary-care doctors who no longer accept Medicare almost doubled in two years, from 13 percent in 2004 to 22 percent in 2006.
And check out this commenter named Peter at The Health Care Blog:
A true “universal” system does not involve private insurance or a two tier level of service that doctors can run to when they are unhappy with the “government” tier. If universal is going to work then we all have to be in the same system and have the same commitment to its success.
I replied:
Am I mistaken to this that the “universal” system Peter describes treats doctors almost like slaves? That is, their choices are to either play by the rules, leave the country, or quit? Is this a respectful way to treat those who can save your life?
Imagine a business doing the same thing: It cannot hire doctors because it pays them too little, so the executives set up a scheme such that anyone else who hires doctors (in another “tier”) faces the threat of being imprisoned for not “cooperating.” How is this different from the mafia?
(via The Health Care Blog and Health Care BS)
tags: Medicare
