Medicare Fee Ordeal- Continued
Tom aka Rusty Rustbelt
Medicare Fee Ordeal – Continued
As of Friday the Senate has passed a six (6) month patch to counter the Sustained Growth Rate formula cuts directed at most physicians.
The average for all physicians was a 21% cut, with changes ranging from primary care (+6%) to cardiology (-42%).
The House will consider the patch next week, and is likely to pass the necessary legislation.
CMS contractors will process claims from June 1 forward – someday. This will really help cash flow in medical practices.
Stay tuned.
Rusty:
It would be good to fix the 1997 legislation that fosters these cuts.
I am utterly mystified.
This site is more or less liberal…and yet plays the violin for the best paid (by far) profession (Medicine).
We are talking about a sector that is already hugely subsidized (Medicare and Medicaid), engages in widespread, habitual corruption (“upcoding”), uses its vast political power to squeeze ever more funds from a population that makes *much* less than they do, and has few (if any) alternative financial sources to extort if the political class ever finds sufficient balls to say enough.
The eternally delayed SGR “cuts” were a small attempt to stanch the obscene medical inflation that has crippled the nation in order to enrich the medical profession…and yet the Left on this site wants to cheerlead for the AMA?
Stinks like a “front” for another self-interested kleptocracy – the same way that public sector unions do.
Can you see why the Left is neither respected nor embraced in this country?
Rusty — given your interest in the US health care system, you might want to check out this thread at Slashdot. I haven’t read that much of it yet, but Slashdot discussions tend to be weird to bizarre with occasional quite insightful posts from people one wouldn’t hear from in other discussions. You might enjoy it if you can tolerate rudeness and digressions into sophmoric bathroom humor.
http://science.slashdot.org/story/10/06/20/2326207/What-US-Health-Care-Needs
A sample from this one:
“I believe there’s a tradition in China where you pay your doctor every month that you are healthy. However, once you become ill you stop paying him and he now has an incentive to get you better.
Of course this could set up its own set of reward-based behaviours, but it’d be interesting to examine.
“
Cut the fees, raise the fees, leave the fees alone, just DO IT!!!
The economics of the situation does not justify political incompetence.
By the way, your rhetoric belies the economic reality of medicine, but the rant must have felt good.
Will do.
My favorite comedy is Blazing Saddles, so ya I might like the site.
yes, but let’s not rush it. :))
“belies the economic reality of medicine”
That’s a pretty vague statement – care to clarify?
Are you justifying levels of medical inflation that are unseen in every other sector of the economy – save those that are government subsidized – like college tuitions (ie, federal student loans)?
***Can you see why the Left is neither respected nor embraced in this country?***
The right isn’t real popular either. According to Gallup from three weeks ago Democratic favorability is at 43%, Republican is 36%. Oh well, both parties can take comfort in having higher favorabilities than the Pope.
Tom aka Rusty Rustbelt is very much not a member of “the left”.
To me he seems to be a reflexive right winger, though he reasonably often overcomes that.
The SGR is pseudo-policy. It doesn’t work, and would be disasterous if allowed to function so it is waived year after year causing a significant amount of chaos which wastes more money.
Note I don’t think he is necessarily a member of “the right” either.
He has written quite a few posts on this blog about medicine in the US rarely reaching “left wing” conclusions. I rarely agree with this conclusions but the posts often point to interesting data well worth discussion.
Rusty,
They are not going to ‘fix; this legislation. By counting these cuts as if they are going to happen it helps to hide the ever-increasing budget deficits…then once the budget is passed you then pass legislation stopping the cuts. One of the dis-honest ways they made HCR cost out.
UNfortuanately the CBO can’t even acknowledge this blatant crap. But its been going on for a long time. Wow 42% cut in cardiology. What a way to discourage heart specialists, maybe we really want eth boomers to go away…
Islam will change
That’s what I am trying to do.
No I’m not, but trying to explain medical ecomonics in a few sharp sentences does not work either.
For example, the net incomes of physicians vary all over the place, from very low to very high, depending on numerous factors.
And the whole intent of the post was not so much medical economics as political incompetence. i’ve been a reform advocate for years (although not too exthused about Obamacare).
The health care and insurance industries are monopolies. All the nashing of teeth to the contrary, there is only one remedy that has a chance of working:
Eliminate the private health insurance business whose profit incentive is based on denying benefits and coverage.
Regulate health care as a public utility.
That is one possibility, although none of the reform camps I can find have ever pushed this really hard. Worth some thought.
“Regulate health care as a public utility.”
I don;’t disagree with that sentiment, but I’d like to know why health care is any different than any other essential aspect of our economy. Energy is certainly just as important. Energy is no less a closely controlled commodity. Only a small handful of players provide the goods. The government talks about controlling health care costs. Why not control energy costs? Why not control the cost of military goods and services? Various state governments have begun to talk about cost containment, but some how can only find that containment in the income hides of their employees. Again the very wealthy aren’t asked to make some form of sacrifice. Why should they when there are so many other incomes to “bring under control.” So explain to me why it seems reasonable to control health care cost by limiting physicians’ fees for service, but the incomes of bankers and oil execs are not part of the discussion? Their incomes can be brought under control not through limitation of compensation, but by increased income taxes on very high earners.
I’m not arguing against the concept of controlling income levels. I am suggesting that what is appropriate to one group of participants in our economy is appropriate to all.
Can you confirm those numbers. The doctors I talk to say that the rollback is 21% across the board with no differential for the subspecialties.
The SGR system first calculates a total cut (the 21% is caused by the patch being applied in several previous years) for the entire system.
Then CMS take cost-of-service data and applies in using a relative value system to each reimbursable procedure (CPT) code. This is what can create a redistribution among the physicians and cuts to some specialties.
Weed:
That is not a really good explanation, i am going to try to write something “in English” that explains how this multi-layered system works.
Thanks, I’ll look forward to it.
cas:
The 997 legislation was a broad brush attempt to cut fees without attacking the true issues . . . costly innovation, procedures, pharma, etc. Cutting primary care doctor care makes no sense.
you want API in india plz visit@ http://tinyurl.com/2ar6g5a