The Bigger Picture: Medicare Decision Time
You have less than three months to decide if you should keep taking Medicare patients
By Pamela Moore Late last year, Congress stopped the scheduled 10 percent reduction in Medicare payments, arranging instead a 0.5 percent increase through June 30. But get ready to take that cut on July 1 — and another 5 percent reduction in January.
There is still, of course, a possibility that Congress will avert the cuts. Last-minute interventions are becoming a pattern. But Medicare payments to physicians, when adjusted for medical inflation, have been declining for years and will continue to do so. The only question is at what rate this decline will occur.
Remember the story of the frog in the stove pot? He’ll hop out only if there’s an abrupt change in water temperature; as long as the water boils slowly, he’s happy to sit there and stew.
So, doc, how do things look from your lily pad?
According to the AMA, 60 percent of you say you will limit new Medicare patients if the big cut happens, and 40 percent say you’ll also limit your existing Medicare patients or even quit the program entirely. Continued...
