MEDICARE UNVEILS FAR-REACHING OVERHAUL OF DOCTORS’ PAY – IOTW Report

MEDICARE UNVEILS FAR-REACHING OVERHAUL OF DOCTORS’ PAY

WASHINGTON (AP) — Changing the way it does business, Medicare on Friday unveiled a far-reaching overhaul of how it pays doctors and other clinicians.

The goal is to reward quality, penalize poor performance, and avoid paying piecemeal for services. Whether it succeeds or fails, it’s one of the biggest changes in Medicare’s 50-year history.

The complex regulation is nearly 2,400 pages long and will take years to fully implement. It’s meant to carry out bipartisan legislation passed by Congress and signed by President Barack Obama last year.

The concept of paying for quality has broad support, but the details have been a concern for some clinicians, who worry that the new system will force small practices and old-fashioned solo doctors to join big groups. Patients may soon start hearing about the changes from their physicians, but it’s still too early to discern the impacts.  MORE

16 Comments on MEDICARE UNVEILS FAR-REACHING OVERHAUL OF DOCTORS’ PAY

  1. 2400 pages of regulations and rules what could go wrong? Incentives for “efficiency” and progressive thinking. Yeah right. The majority of surgical groups in my town announced after this that they will no longer accept Medicare…problem solved for them. They also said that they can’t write off pro-bono work so they are washing their hands of the whole thing…stay healthy my friends.

  2. Here is the way this works. They will start on death rates. Lets take a cardiovascular surgeon who has high rates of death. Is he a bad doctor or does he try to save individuals that are very ill? There is no way to differentiate. Thus, if you need surgery but are sick, you don’t get it. Then they have assessment of if you educate on cholesterol lowering and give statins. Now, there is no relationship between cholesterol and any disease state, but the doctors that advise and don’t see patients and get paid by big pharma will insist that you get dangerous statins. I just saw an article in my journal that says statins are not that bad, bullshit.

  3. Went to a meeting with the doctor i work for a few weeks back about this, it is even worse than this describes. None of it makes economic sense. one example; they are planning to pay 95% of the wholesale cost of drugs he provides. How long can that work out. Cannot increase the cost of something else to cover the loss. next problem is other insurances will follow medicare’s lead.

  4. Great. I have right-side sciatica AND a broken left ankle.

    BTW that’s where I’ve been lately. Appointments, drugs treatments, ambulance. Also have DTS from caffeine withdrawal. Typing not good. Shit. I just hope I can vote. I’ll take a cab to the polling place if I have to.

  5. To add to David 7134’s comment…. the 2016 hospice benefit (which as y’all have seen me mention before is the MOST generous benefit that Medicare pays out, but noooooooooo we don’t have no steeenkin’ death panels)…

    In the last week of life the hospice benefit increases it’s payout, called the SIA (service intensity add-on). Extra $40 a day.

    Think any weird shit will happen with THIS one?

  6. All I know that I can’t get Euflexxa knee injections that my rheumatologist thinks will probably help me, but Medicare won’t pay for them. Therefore my private supplementary won’t pay. Medicare will pay for the Synvisc that doesn’t help me.

    Am p*$$ed. WTH am I paying premiums for?

  7. When will people finally realize that the government cannot run anything well. Obama care is a disaster and this won’t work either. The final result will be single payer or totally government controlled health care. When people finally get “free” health care it will be too late to change. Medicare is developing this system in order to pay doctors less. Eventually doctors will be treated like teachers and paid about the same. Don’t expect doctors to go the extra mile for you in the future.

  8. When the medical profession stops paying well the kind of people we want in it will pass it up for other things and we’ll be left with mediocrities and third-worlders.

    You don’t always get what you pay for but you rarely get more.

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