Medicare payments cut 21%

[Joanne98]

Physicians in Mississippi and across the country beginning Monday will receive a 21-percent cut in payments for Medicare patients, the head of the state's medical group said.

"It puts patients in peril because doctors aren't seeing a lot of new Medicare patients as it is," said Dr. Randy Easterling, president of the Mississippi State Medical Association. "But if the 21-percent cut remains in effect, within four to six months, you will have very few physicians seeing Medicare patients at all."

"Those who are on Medicare need to wake up and realize that these cuts that have been talked about for so long aren't happening in a year or two - they're happening now," Easterling said.
More than 475,000 Mississippians are enrolled in the Medicare program.


The U.S. House of Representatives passed a temporary extension by voice vote on Thursday, delaying the payment cuts by 30 days. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, asked for a similar extension by unanimous vote. It was blocked by Sen. Jim Bunning, R-Ky.

http://www.clarionledger.com/article/20100228/NEWS/2280368/1001

Thanks to Jim Bunning and the Republicans in the Senate. Who had conservative Senators to back him up on the fillibuster.

[Joanne98]

1. It will affect the troops too.

NAPLES — Physicians left their practices Friday frustrated at their elected leaders in Washington for failing to reverse a 21 percent Medicare payment reduction that will now take effect Monday.

The fallout is physicians may scale back on the number of Medicare patients they treat and some may drop out of the Medicare program entirely.

The payment cut likewise applies to members of the military on the federal government’s TRICARE insurance.

http://www.vawatchdog.org/10/nf10/nffeb10/nf022710-5.htm

[Dappleganger]

3. Oh, they WILL scale back Medicare patients...that's already been going on

for quite some time. There's hardly a doctor's office I go into anymore that doesn't have the dubious sign "Not Accepting Additional Medicare Patients" posted in the door or at the window.

[gateley]

5. I don't blame the doctors at all. The majority of them have tried to accommodate

Medicare patients, but we can't expect them to keep doing the same job for less and less money.

[DisgustedInMN]

12. Not justifying this, but....

.. this is exactly what has been happening to most of the rest of us for 30 years.

[gateley]

27. Yes, but most small businesses aren't literally maybe the determining

factor whether someone lives or dies. And I'm sure they've already been hit with lower reimbursement rates for many services, too.

[DisgustedInMN]

29. Oh ... I see..

.. it's only "fair" to squeeze the earnings of us mere mortals? :sarcasm:

I got it, they're better than the rest of us.

[gateley]

30. No, that's not what I meant at all - not even close. But never mind, apparently

I'm not explaining myself well, so think what you want.

[mockmonkey]

24. Wow really?

Maybe the Doctors could join the rest of us in the good Ol' USA who are expected to "keep doing the same job for less and less money."



:shrug:

[gateley]

25. Yeah. Really. What if a physician has a large percentage of

Medicare patients, and all the patients s/he sees don't cover the expenses -- just the bare expenses, like overhead, malpractice insurance, a salary or two, benefits for the employee(s). Is that fair? Not to mention that physician has his or her own medical insurance premiums to pay, and that of the family, raising kids, paying a mortgage, putting food on the table. The physician is essentially a small business. I don't think it's unreasonable to allow the physician to set a limit on how many medicare patients s/he sees in order to cover the basics made up with higher payments from other insured patients.

Surely you couldn't begrudge a physician that fairness, could you?

[Donnachaidh]

31. there are many doctors out there that don't take medicare period.

Is it fair to the doctors who do to allow THAT to stand?

Personally, I have no problem with setting limits -- but they ALL have to do it. It should be conditional to getting a license to practice in this country.

[Donnachaidh]

32. what *majority*?

When I lived in Los Angeles there were NO doctors willing to take Medicare within a reasonable distance of my home. Now that I live in Georgia, it may not be *as* bad, but there are definitely more doctors who won't take Medicare than will.

[Faygo Kid]

2. This can't stand. It simply can't.

We are living in terrifying times. The Rethuglicans are now nihilists.

[gateley]

4. Of all the things that we shouldn't be cutting...

Don't Medicare recipients pay premiums? If so, how is this different from a for-profit insurance company denying benefits? It's the same result.

I really find this upsetting. Again, the people who need help the most... :grr:

[madrchsod]

16. i`ll be paying a higher percentage than what i did when i worked but...

i know i`ll never be turned down for a treatment and my social security payment can not be garnished. that`s why retirees work at walmart..it pays for the supplemental and medicare payments

[mmonk]

6. Yep.

I used a MedPage report on that situation on my blog. It wasn't just unemployment benefits affected though that is bad and heartless in itself. The situation partly to blame also is the Medicare accounting trick called SGR (sustainable growth rate) which fluctuates as GDP fluctuates. His use of the unanimous consent parliamentary move prevented the Senate from doing an emergency funding fix.

[nannah]

23. why wasn't this tidbit added to the outrage at bunning for unemployment?

it would have broadened the scope of those affected adding all who are medicare age to all who are unemployed: quite an alliance! who chose how this was framed? who decided to loudly proclaim outrage over no extension of unemployment, while ignoring the larger group interest of cuts to medicare payments?

[mmonk]

28. I don't know but I did it in reverse on my blog.

http://americancommentary.wordpress.com/2010/02/27/21-medicare-reimbursement-cut-scheduled-to-go-into-effect-march-1st-republican-senator-jim-bunning-ky-uses-unanimous-consent-procedure-that-delays-senate-action/">link.

I figure it will garnish attention.

[snot]

7. Only 2 recs? Come on!

[xsquid]

15. What's a rec? nt

[TreasonousBastard]

8. Where's the "Medicare for All" crowd now? Given a choice...

between scumbag insurance companies and scumbag politicians, I'd move to France.

(Heard earlier that GB will be checking that you have health insurance before they let you in-- too many are finding that flying there is cheaper than, say having a baby, here. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8539014.stm)

[Kalyke]

10. That won't work.

Many Americans can prove they have insurance - that the little card DOESN'T tell anyone is how little it will pay for the birth: only that you've paid blood, sweat and tears for years to still have an insurance card.

[slipslidingaway]

13. If there was an improved Medicare for All do you think the government

would reduce payments by 21% for the entire country and that every citizen and medical provider would stay silent. If anything Medicare for All makes sense because groups are not divided and fighting for there own needs.

:shrug:

[TreasonousBastard]

34. My point is that I'm not sure i want healthcare to be held hostage to...

Congress any more than to the insurance companies. Politicians by nature pretend to be, or actually are, incredibly stupid and cowardly, regardless of party, and will sell us all out at the drop of a hat.

[slipslidingaway]

35. And my point is that if we all have the same basic plan it will be harder

to make cuts.

Tough choice ...Congress or for profit insurance companies.

:shrug:

[patrice]

17. The ones I know dropped Medicare for All and decided it's Single Payer or nothing.

I don't go to their meetings anymore.

[flyarm]

22. Czech Republic ALREADY MAKES YOU PROVE YOU HAVE HEALTH INSURANCE BEFORE YOU FLY THERE! EOM

[madfloridian]

9. If our party allows this with a good majority....I'm gone.

[xsquid]

11. Damn, there's only one one rhumatologist in this area

that has not completely dropped all of their medicare patients and he has a sign up saying if it gets cut he will have to stop seeing us. It's extremely bad out there right now finding dr's, good luck moving to a new area as I did, and it looks like it may become pretty much impossible. Lots of people would love to see medicare open to much more people, but it needs to be fixed first or it would just be a lot more people that cannot find dr's. Yes, I know they are no longer talking about adding more to it, but I'm just saying.......

[patrice]

14. K & R

[WhiteTara]

18. I just faxed all his offices

not one was overloaded. PLease call and fax him. He needs to hear what a pos he is. No it won't change outcomes, but he NEEDS to know that he is not approved of BY THE PEOPLE. I did tell him to "cheney" himself and tough sh*t. He has staffers, they need to see it too.
http://bunning.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Contact.OfficeLocations
go for it

[ellenfl]

19. who wrote the bill for this cut on the first place? since it

was passed in 2002, i would have to say republicans. if they cannot vote down medicare outright, they will just cut the funding so the doctors get rid of it. i think dubya's 8 years was to set up every facet of government to fail . . . first there was medicare part d and now this. the conspiracy to 'drown government in a bathtub' seems to be snowballing its way to fruition.

ellen fl

[corpseratemedia]

20. When elderly Kentuckian republicans voted for Bunning they voted for this.

They'll be no dr.s that will see them in a few months. And it affects me, Sen.dick-who-missed-his-basketball-game.

If the republicans can't dismantle medicare overtly they'll do it this way.




Bunning is a sociopath. Republicans are sociopaths who want to eliminate people who hurt the bottom line. That includes their idiot elderly Kentuckian teabagger supporters. The pay cuts in medicare by repigs in these bills on one side and the huge rate increases and non-coverage by their for-profit insurance supporters on the other are the DEATH PANELS.

CIVILIZED COUNTRIES HAVE UNIVERSAL HEALTH COVERAGE.

Be proud republicans for looking as barbaric and stupid as you are, you are LOSERS to the rest of the world.

[nannah]

21. was this bill linked to the unemployment extension that bunning blocked? n/t

[mmonk]

26. Yes

[ezmerelda39]

33. Medicare cuts........

Turn about is fair play, everyone who votes for this will have their socialized medical plans paid for by the taxpayers cut by 21% or better yet by 42%. Close three or four military bases and this cut for Medicare patients would be covered. The more money saved on social programs the more bases they will build, the more countries they will reconstruct after have demolished them. There seems to be a pattern here. No one has mentioned that to cut the deficit maybe it would be a good idea to just cut the waste in the Pentagon's budget.