Saturday, October 08, 2011

Send a Message to Congress: Don't Cut Access to Healthcare for Medicare Patients




Medicare has been using a flawed formula to annually revise Medicare fees to all providers. The formula results in a larger and larger cut each year, which often gets temporarily "fixed" at the last minute. Due to the current dysfunctional Congress, the expectation is that it won't get fixed this time around, and so this year's cut -- 30%! -- will stay in place, resulting in many doctors, nurses, psychologists, social workers, and other providers to drop Medicare.

What we need is for them to repeal this flawed "Sustainable Growth Rate" (SGR) formula, and replace it with something that makes sense.

Please CLICK HERE to take a few minutes to let your elected representatives know what you think about this.

Thank you.

3 comments:

jesse said...

Boy are you right, Roy. The Medicare price structure is (I think) what stimulated the doctors in Florida to start the Boutique Medicine idea. I think everyone ultimately loses the way reimbursements etc work in medical care, and psychiatrists come out badly, as do pediatricians and others who do not have expensive procedures to boost their incomes.

I am not pretending I know what to do - I have no idea - but I know the system is quite broken.

Liz said...

bravo! thank you for this.

http://pocketshrink.blogspot.com

Sunny CA said...

I agree that physicians are being mistreated by the government (and insurance companies).
However, as a 60 year old, I find it scary that social security and medicare are in such bad shape and I hope enough is done to keep these plans afloat. I paid through the nose into these plans for my entire working career, usually at the top end of what is collected, and now that I approach the age when I need the benefit of plans they are starting to fail. People over 65 can't afford health care insurance coverage because insurance companies jack up the prices so steeply as one ages. If the government stops these programs, seniors will have NO medical coverage at all because they won't be able to afford it. I already pay more than $1,200 a month at age 60 for a plan with a $2,500 deductible. What would it cost if I were 75 or 80?