Doctors' uprising against Medicare

[ScreamingEagle]

Government health care does not seem to be working that great for many doctors. Many avoid Medicare or refuse to take on new Medicare patients. This could also be a very big problem for many future patients. In 5 short years years the baby boomers will be turning 65 and going on Medicare. If doctors refuse to serve Medicare patients, what will the boomers do?

""The level of frustration with the traditional program is very high among physicians," says Kathy Lindquist-Kleissler, executive director of the Denver Medical Society. "It pays poorly. There is a lot of paperwork and hassle. And there's the continuing threat of fraud investigations."

Her group, along with seven other Colorado medical societies, recently polled their members about Medicare, finding only 58% of primary care doctors say they are taking new Medicare patients.

A separate poll of 350 Denver-area doctors by a patient advocacy group found only 15% willing to take new Medicare patients.

"The health care system is in a mess," says Hal Prink of the Patient Advocacy Coalition, which did the survey. "Medicare may need to look at reimbursement levels and say that because older patients take more time, the doctors need more reimbursement," Prink says.

Economist Paul Ginsburg, of the Center for Studying Health System Change, says the retrenching by some doctors, while limited to pockets of the country now, should be watched carefully. "If this becomes a widespread problem, that will be the signal that payments have to be increased," Ginsburg says. "If not, that will be a signal that payments are OK."

"As baby boomers age, who else are we going to have but elderly on Medicare? If we (doctors) are only going to take so many, who will serve them?""

http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2001-02-19-medicare.htm

 

[Adam's Apple]

Since our politicians in Washington don't have any answers on how to solve the giant Medicare problem looming just down the road, perhaps we should outsource it to India or China and have them come up with the answer for us. (just being a smart ass, folks :tng: ).