Posted on 07/10/2015 10:28:41 AM PDT by Brad from Tennessee
For the first time, the Obama administration has deployed an important new power it has under the Affordable Care Act: proposing to pay doctors and hospitals based on the quality of care they provide, regardless of whether they want to be paid that way.
It introduced two such programs this week. One would require all hospitals in 75 metropolitan areas to accept a flat fee for the costs associated with a hip or knee replacement — including the costs of surgery, medications, the joint implant and rehabilitation. And if the quality of the care is not judged to be good, Medicare will take back some of the money it paid. Another program would increase or decrease payments to home health agencies in nine states, depending on how they perform on certain quality measurements.
The Department of Health and Human Services always had the authority to change the amounts it paid for certain services, but before Obamacare, it needed Congress to pass legislation to change the way it paid for them. The agency is asking for public comment on the proposals.
These changes will allow the administration to reshape the Medicare program. The new payment rules, while guided by existing evidence, are still experimental — and are likely to anger Obamacare critics and members of Congress who would prefer to see major changes to Medicare enacted through legislation.
The proposal “does raise the question of how much legislative authority can be ceded,” Joseph Antos, a scholar at the conservative think tank the American Enterprise Institute, said in an email. . .
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
It’s awful. We are destroying our healthcare system. My brother was a doctor (he passed away 5 years ago at 62) and told my son not to go into medicine because this Obamacare will ruin the profession. He was correct.
That is just NOT true. Physician Assistants must first have a BS degree and some medical experience before applying for the PA program which then has medical training.
so.....the quality of the work done by a doctor who formally studied for twelve years is going to be judged by some bureaucrat who earned a BA in Womyn’s Studies from Wassamatta U?
course, who gets to decide what “quality of care” is ?
does this open up the feds & doctors to more malpractice ?
“does raise the question of how much legislative authority can be ceded,”
Congress would just as soon cede it all, if they could keep their money and their women.
The PA program was created by the military to make use of Viet Nam era medics who acquired incredible medical training via the battle field and real life experience. That program is now open to high school grads with no medical experience.
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I don’t know what PA program you are talking about, but the ones my niece and two cousins (3 different schools) have experience with required a college degree with certain classes such as anatomy & physiology. They had to have good G.P.A.s (3.0 or higher), approximately a year of clinical patient contact experience, and 3 letters of professional and/or academic references whom they have known for a minimum of 6 months. Service to country, state/local government and community was valued & was to be included on the application. My niece, who was just accepted for a program beginning this fall, had to compete with over a 1,000 applicants who were all vying for 25 positions. The two cousins (now PAs) had similar experiences. They are paid well, but not as much as doctors.
Condolences on your brother’s death.
I know many of the doctors are not encouraging others to go into the profession because it’s become so burdensome, and the cost of hiring and maintaining staff to meet all gov’t demands has made some deep cuts in their salaries.
We know one guy who had his MD, practiced a year or two, but couldn’t stand the restrictions (and this was several years ago.) He went back to school, got his MBA and now makes lots of $$$ working as an adviser for investments in Big Pharma and biotechnology.
Yep, Obamacare has to get rid of all of those “undesirables”, e.g. elderly, young people with medical problems, and heaven knows who else would be considered a burden on Obama’s society. Why does anyone think that Obama’s society is pushing “right to life choices”. Can anyone say Nazi’s 1933? No man does not learn, that’s why history repeats itself.
It might be worse. They’ll probably use patient satisfaction surveys. If you’re familiar with reading reviews of anything on the Internet, you’ll know that things will get rated one star for the silliest and most irrelevant reasons.
My son did end up getting a BA in Biology. And he has just completed his MBA and working. while looking for other options.
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