Posted on 12/19/2014 6:18:33 PM PST by nicmarlo
The bullying of the nation’s physicians continues apace, now turning to penalizing doctors who don’t meet the administration’s one-size-fits-all approach to medical records. Bruce Japsen of Forbes reports:
More than 250,000 physicians and other health professionals are being notified as early as today that their payments from Medicare and Medicaid will be cut because they aren’t adequately using electronic health records in their practices, the Obama administration confirmed.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, known as CMS, is telling about 257,000 eligible medical care providers who are largely physicians that they will be paid 1 percent less in reimbursement next year from both the Medicare health insurance program for the elderly and the Medicaid insurance program for the poor because they failed to comply with so-called “Meaningful Use” of electronic health records standards in 2013.
This is another reason for doctors to shun Medicare. The electronic medical records requirements have been a disaster for many physicians in small and solo practices, particularly. Instead of saving time and money, they impose new burdens. One physician in solo practice I know has had to add a half-time staff member to cope with the extra work. And the need to stare at a computer and fill in boxes and blanks while talking to patients disrupts the close communication between doctor and patient necessary for sound diagnosis. Instead of looking intently at the patient, the physician must look at the computer while proceeding down a checklist.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
It is a statistical impossibility for any president to have policies which consistently undermine and destroy everything which is moral, good, and productive for America as has been the case with Obama's presidency given the amount of resources at his disposal and having such a vast pool from which to hire or contract with highly educated and experienced advisors, lawyers, consultants, economists, and researchers. The average American, many who have little to no college education, understand cause and effect. Many can foresee possible future unintended consequences.
But EVERY Obama policy has failed to do what is best for America and Americans and has 'unintended' consequences, which is statistically impossible.
The only plausible conclusion which can be reached is that what is perceived as Obama's 'failures' are actually failures by design.
Of course they have to accept it first. From what I’m hearing and reading is that a lot of medical professionals are not accepting ACA insurance or Medicare.
simple... don’t take medicare and see who blinks first.
Docs are just like the rest of - wondering why this is happening.
They know as well as we do - it is a fraud.
Doctors not switching to EMR have a 1% medicare pay cut per year of noncompliance at a cap of 5% total in 2018. The 1% deductions began in 2013.
Our long time family physician, who had many loyal
patients, took early retirement because he did not want to be required to use the electronic media. What a loss
to hundreds of his patients. He was a doctor who would
call his patients in the late afternoon, early evening to see how they were doing, go over test results and so forth.
I don’t like this and have seen an old school family practitioner struggling with EMR screens, but OTOH, if they’re going to do business with the government.......
Technology is NEVER a substitute for good management although many would like to think so...............
That’s true, and yet another ‘unintended’ consequence of increasing the likelihood that doctors will refuse to have Medicare patients.
not sure because the article is very vague about the government requirement in question. inscos have been trying to disincentive paper filing of insurance claims for a long time. i think this is the requirement described by CMS. Like EFT and checks electronic 837 and 835’s are cheaper and easier to process. If you have insurance all records there are stored electronically. as all of your financial transactions at what ever bank you use. There are service companies and insco portals that have been set up to minimize the burden. Is there no cost to using paper for these transactions? errors causing adjustments, repayments, etc. very poorly written article.
My dentist quit taking Medicare patients. He said his overhead was higher than what he was getting paid.
Quitting was in effect, a pay raise.
More of a reason to get rid of Obamacare and Medicare.
I’m sure that will happen, and once again, the impact won’t be felt by Obama & his minions, but those who are less fortunate.
Medicare Part A (the hospital part) is still attractive for senior citizens because:
1. The hospitals generally take it,
2. There’s no premium after you turn 65, and
3. It satisfies the Obamacare requirement for coverage (i.e., no penalty).
Medicare Part D (the drug part) is worth taking because the premium is low.
Medicare Part B (the doctor part) may not be worth taking. Signing up with a doctor’s practice for concierge care may turn out to be better. Doctors like it because it’s not regulated by the gov’t, and doctors can charge less because there’s not all the red tape. Plus, you may not be able to get a doctor to take Medicare Part B.
I think concierge care will really take off in the future.
If you get really sick, hospital costs are usually by far the biggest expense, and as of now, Medicare Part A is still accepted.
And you know what's 'amazing'? In that he has been and continues to be successful. What are the odds? /s
Thanks for posting that!
You are absolutely correct.
Good info about the Medicare Parts and concierge care...hadn’t heard of that.
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