Wouldn’t you have thought that at the very last minute, that Medicare would be spared from having the 2% reductions? Did you hold your breath at the eleventh hour? Starting yesterday, April 1 (not an April Fool’s joke and no one’s laughing) healthcare providers will experience a 2% reduction in Medicare reimbursement. This translates to [...]
When you hear that the ball is going to drop this time of year, you would automatically think of Time Square and the Tiffany ball dropping to denote the start of next year. Hopefully the ball doesn’t drop on our healthcare. As you know we are on count down for Medicare as well. You have [...]
More than a quarter of physicians in practices of 10 or fewer health professionals will close their practice in the next year due to financial pressures according to a survey done by MDLinx. In contrast, only 13% of doctors in larger practices felt the pinch with a decrease in income. Fifteen thousand doctors registered in [...]
This week, an article appeared in Medical Economics entitled “Doctor-patient relationship will be damaged by Medicare panel, critics warn” written by Brenda L. Mooney. In this constant swirling controversy of healthcare reform, her comments regarding Medicare is definitely worth a read. You may find the article below. Although the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act [...]
A new article was just published by Jordan Rau with The Washington Post, entitled “Medicare To Begin Basing Hospital Payments On Patient-Satisfaction Scores”. See the article below Thought your hospital room was dirty? Did your nurse sometimes ignore you? If so, the hospital has a new reason to worry: Patient gripes soon will affect how [...]
The Senate side-stepped a catastrophe to senior healthcare this month as it passed the “doc fix”, legislation sponsored by Harry Reid and Sen. Max Baucus, which slashes Medicare reimbursements to physicians by 25%, slated for January 1. Instead, the Medicare reimbursements will remain the same. At least, this is what everyone hopes will take place [...]
We’ve come to the time when Medicare rate slashing would be activated. Once again, however, the “Doc Fix” has come into play. The 23% cut to Medicare reimbursement for doctors has been postponed by a unanimous vote in the Senate….but only for one month from December 1 to January 1. The 2.2% raise stipulated in [...]
Kathleen Sebelius, the Secretary of Health and Human Services, states that Medicare funds will extend beyond 2029 assuming that Medicare payment reimbursements to doctors will go forward, Associated Press reports. Richard Foster, the Medicare Actuary, warned in the report that the program’s projected savings might not be realistic. The report considers a 23% Medicare payment cut to [...]
The Medicare debate and the whim of Congress is sending a message that Medicare is or will be very unreliable. Physicians who depend on Medicare by as much as 31% of income to cover expenses will (or are currently) questioning the wisdom of being providers of Medicare. Although the promise of a permanent “doc fix” [...]
Today President Obama signed into law the Preservation of Access to Care for Medicare Beneficiaries and Pension Relief Act of 2010, more commonly known as the “doc fix”.This defers the slashing of Medicare reimbursements to doctors by 21.3% for services rendered as of June 1. However, this “reprieve” is only in effect until November. Mr. [...]
