Posted on 05/18/2010 5:51:03 AM PDT by Fawn
Texas doctors are opting out of Medicare at alarming rates, frustrated by reimbursement cuts they say make participation in government-funded care of seniors unaffordable.
Two years after a survey found nearly half of Texas doctors weren't taking some new Medicare patients, new data shows 100 to 200 a year are now ending all involvement with the program. Before 2007, the number of doctors opting out averaged less than a handful a year. “This new data shows the Medicare system is beginning to implode,” said Dr. Susan Bailey, president of the Texas Medical Association. “If Congress doesn't fix Medicare soon, there'll be more and more doctors dropping out and Congress' promise to provide medical care to seniors will be broken.”
(Excerpt) Read more at chron.com ...
the comments that follow the article are something else!
LOL...as a financial advisor, we have 78 doctors in our client group. 69 of them have either opted out of Medicare or are going to. 4 of them want to retire sooner than they planned, 2 got their multi engine rating to fly to Costa Rica, and 15 of them DO NOT want their children to become doctors!
Every time I see a blue-haired lady with a 0 sticker on her car I just want to scream. Soon they’ll be bee-yotching because their doctors won’t see them any more. Ye reap what ye sow - complain to the White House, OK?
My PCP is making noises about getting out of the business too. Can’t say that I blame him - 0care is going to ruin his business anyway. Hope he hangs in until after Nov 3, assuming we have an election then -
True.
With the fraud occurring in medicare by doctors and hospitals (verified by audits and settled cases) the slogan might be:
Physician heal thyself!
Part of the problem is the doctors and hospitals. Part of the problem is the system was built to allow it.
Real reform, not Obamacare, would have addressed other items to reform our healthcare system. Things like allow the purchase of healthcare across state lines, make healthcare individual centric not business centric, equalize tax benefit and institute nation-wide high risk pools. Just a start and just a thought.
This is happening in other states too.
True, but I feel really bad for the many Medicare aged voters who didn’t vote for Obama and actually stood up and was counted at the town hall meetings that went on across the country. Those would include my grandmothers as well as my parents and my husband’s parents. :(
A doctor friend can rattle off a list of treatments he can’t provide to medicare/gov care patients because the government reimburses him less than his cost. Then that same government will reimburse other providers much more than cost.
It sounds like an insane system already, and America (somehow) thinks that putting bureaucrats in charge of something will make it better. Everything bureaucrats is driven into hopeless, mindless bankruptcy and chaos in short order.
Not to worry...when enough doctors opt out of Medicaid, Medicare and Obamacare, those still practicing will eventually be forced on to the government payroll or will have to go it alone in some black market...or both. I never understood why any of them favored Obamacare.
Obama's plan is working perfectly.
The way to stop the fraud is to slap the offenders into the slammer; show no mercy. There are too many honest doctors out there trying to do the right thing, do no harm, follow the rules. It’s unfair to tar the whole bunch, not that I’m saying that’s what you were trying to do.
Every profession has crooks. Crooks need to be behind bars.
Very true. My 91-yr old mother-in-law, who lives with us, absolutely HATES 0 and will tell anyone within earshot all about it. Thus far she’s not had any major problems with Medicare and seeing her preferred doctors, but she sees the hand writing on the wall.
Full disclosure: I’m a few years short of Medicare age; still working and have good health insurance through my job.
Me neither. Amazing.
You nailed it!
An even better idea: let’s try capitalism.
I am rabidly against Obamacare, but am a disabled American stuck on Medicare. It’s one thing for the aged and disabled to receive Medicare and quite another for government run healthcare to be forced on entirety of the nation. But we know that Obamacare was never really about health care...the so-called “crisis” was created by the progressives, sold by Obama, and meant to establish control over the people. That’s why even though it was rejected by the majority, it was shoved through anyway, by progressives, especially the unions.
I agree if they are found guilty of fraud or theft they should be sentenced to 5-10 years (possible 1/3 of the time in a jail and 2/3’s of the time on probation with weekly reporting requirements) AND take away any licenses they hold to practice whatever profession.
There are honest doctors out there but they are overshadowed by the unethical ones.
I agree, “one bad apple doesn’t spoil the whole bunch” however the stigma remains on all (rightly or wrongly). There doesn’t seem to be a good example of creating change from with-in in any of our professions.
Associations and boards do not discipline theirown to the extent necessary to make ethical behavior the norm. Maybe if everyone is tarred with the stain of the bad they will soon decide to take action against theirown.
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