A Pennsylvania citizen voices their opinion. BD
It would cause pain immediately,
Well, that’s what the federal government is proposing for doctors.
It wants to cut their payments for Medicare services by 9.9 percent, starting next year.
Anticipating such a cutback, 60 percent of Pennsylvania doctors say they will stop taking new Medicare patients if the cuts go through.
Likewise, half the doctors said they would reduce staff, two-thirds said they would put off upgrading essential information technology and 14 percent said they would “completely get out of patient care.”
The last item, withdrawal from providing patient care is of special concern because Pennsylvania is in need of more doctors, not fewer.
Pennsylvania is the third largest state using Medicare, behind only West Virginia and Florida.
Locally, in Luzerne and Lackawanna counties more than 110,000 people were enrolled in Medicare as of 2006.
The problem is, the age of doctors in Pennsylvania is increasing as well. More than 40 percent of the doctors in Pennsylvania are beyond age 50 and many are approaching retirement.
It will be hard to attract new young doctors to practice in Pennsylvania if the number of Medicare patients is huge and the compensation for those patients is small.
And although Pennsylvania is one of the highest states in educating doctors, they will go to other states when it comes time to practice medicine.
Part of the issue is perception. People imagine doctors making bundles of money. But for those treating Medicare patients, that is not the case.
Additionally, doctors have overhead to pay staff, rent electricity and all the other services attached to a business.
Some balance is needed here.
Medicare should not be a bonanza for doctors, with payments that put millions into their accounts. But it should be a fair compensation for medical services provided.
Cutting it by 9.9 percent would not be fair.
0 comments :
Post a Comment