Medicare patients might have harder time finding physiciansBy Jill Coley (Contact)
The Post and Courier
Sunday, May 11, 2008
South Carolina's growing population of seniors might face a shrinking pool of doctors if Medicare cuts physician pay by more than 15 percent in the next year. Physician payments will drop 10.6 percent in July and an additional 5 percent in January unless Congress intervenes. These cuts come after Medicare payments remained almost unchanged since 2001. "The pay cut is going to have an impact on our ability to see patients and care for them," said Gerald Harmon, immediate past president of the South Carolina Medical Association. As a primary care physician, Harmon said he is frustrated. "I want to continue to see my Medicare patients and see new Medicare patients find medical homes." South Carolina could lose $190 million in funding for care of the elderly and disabled, according to the American Medical Association. About 700,000 S.C. residents, or about 16 percent of the state's population, receive Medicare, according to the Lt. Governor's Office on Aging. Ten percent of those residents receive benefits because of disability, and the rest have reached age 65. Since 2001, the number of beneficiaries in the state has jumped 17.5 percent. The first of South Carolina's 1.3 million baby boomers will turn 65 during the next president's term, Lt. Governor Andre Bauer said. The eldest of the nation's 78 million baby boomers already have started to draw early Social Security benefits. Medicare operates according to a sustainable growth rate, Harmon said. As more people use the system, Medicare pays less. The problem compounds as the Medicare population seeks more frequent and more expensive treatments, he said. Teresa Arnold, legislative director for the S.C. AARP, said, "The sustainable growth rate system has not been effective at controlling the volume or intensity of services, which has led to higher Medicare spending and greater out-of- pocket costs for beneficiaries." In the past seven years, while payment rates remained nearly stagnant, Medicare premiums doubled from $45.50 to $93.50, Arnold said. "If you do fix the problem, don't do it on the backs of seniors who can't afford it," she said. An AARP survey of older Americans found that 14 percent of beneficiaries have had to give up something to pay for their increased premiums. Twenty one percent said they cut back on groceries. "It's hard for the general public to understand there's little or no profit for seeing Medicare patients. It's break even at best," said John R. Raymond, vice president for academic affairs and provost at Medical University of South Carolina. With the average medical student graduating with more than $200,000 in debt, many may shy away from rural areas or primary care, Raymond said. Reach Jill Coley at 937-5719 or jcoley@postandcourier.com. |
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Comments
This article has 5 comment(s)
Posted by oldglory on May 11, 2008 at 12:37 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Am I the only senior reading this article?
Let me state this up front: (1) I am not a 'doctor person'; (2) I do not agree with many tests for various reasons, unless a doctor is able to convince me of the need; (3) I do respect doctors IF they earn that respect; and (4) I know one day that I will die, doctor or no doctor.
Doctors too must have accountability for these health care costs. Doctors will agree to accept medicare, but insist on checkups, blood tests and any other tests, such as MRIs whenever they can. Do we need all this testing every visit?
And why am I unable to state and have respected the fact that my body/system 'feels' as it should and/or I feel as though I'm dying? One of my family care doctors really made me angry, saying that although all the results were fine that my 'perfect little body' just needed some tweaking--I never returned and found a new doctor. I care about me and the way I feel, but I resent spending wads of medicare money (mine and other taxpayers), forcing up medicare costs/payments/etc. merely to support a greedy system.
I have noted that my specialists, endocrinologists, merely test for specific items when the numbers are out of kilter. However, there are fewer appointments, fewer testings, etc. I trust them because my body feels well following their advices.
BTW, I do try to maintain my health in all ways, including diet, exercise, flu shots (even though for several years flu shots have been screwed up), pneumonia shots, checkups, good-sense tests. I've had only one doctor (endocrinologist) who asks my concurrence in any testing, and I appreciate that. Other doctors seem to just plunge ahead, regardless of whether it is a once-a-year covered procedure or not, leaving me to pick up the difference if that procedure is denied.
Health care is a three-way street: yourself, your doctors and the federal government! IMHO, we, the patients, need to take the wheel and steer these vehicles a little more accurately!
I would love to read other senior citizen comments, otherwise I will not know how far off base or accurate my opinions are. Come on! Let's hear some feedback!
Posted by abitskeptical on May 11, 2008 at 1:34 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I am not a senior, yet!, but I do know that many physicians feel pressured by threat of malpractice suits to order any test conceivable that might rule out or in anything that might be wrong with the patient. Rarely does the physician profit financially from the tests ordered.
Posted by bkeelin on May 11, 2008 at 5:11 p.m. (Suggest removal)
WELCOME TO SOCIALIZED MEDICINE. THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN THE GOVERNMENT INTERVENES IN WHAT SHOULD BE A FREE MARKET SYSTEM.
THIS IS WHAT WE HAVE TO LOOK FORWARD TO WITH THE SOCIALISTIC PROGRAMS OF THE DEMOCRATS.
LONG LINES, REDUCED SERVICES AND WAITING MONTHS TO SEE YOUR PRIMARY CARE DOCTOR. WELCOME TO RUSSIA, UK, AND OTHER SOCIALISTIC SYSTEMS. THESE PROGRAMS WILL DRIVE THIS COUNTRY INTO BANKRUPTCY, IF THE TAX AND SPEND LIBERALS ON BOTH SIDES OF THE ISLE DON'T DO IT FIRST.
Posted by katrenavantassle on May 12, 2008 at 9:09 a.m. (Suggest removal)
My mother is currently on medicare. She was once covered under the military before divorce. Now she is experiencing what people on medicare go thru. She recently went to Summerville Medical Center and was treated like crap and told to go to the Fedder's Clinic for treatment.
I have seen first hand some of the unprofessional nurses in the emergency room at Summerville Medical. One nurse I actually met was so rude, and had the bedside mannor of a toad. She was blatenly mean, she must have hated her job and was a miserable person in life in general. She told a patient that she was just a big baby and that their pain wasn't that bad. HOW DID SHE KNOW WHAT THE PATIENT WAS FEELING? She eventually received so many complaints that she was either fired or quit, because she is not at SMC any longer... THANK GOD>
My mother went to Fedders' only to be told that they didn't have the correct equipment to treat her and for her to go back to SMC.
She said she would rather go un-treated than to put up with the humiliation and to be treated like scum of the earth at Summerville Medical Center.
Now they are going to cut Medicare even more? I feel bad for all the seniors who will go thru this. They deserve the best care available and these private hospitals who contract doctors need to be aware that word of mouth is a strong thing, and that sooner or later the public will get wind of how they treat people without insurance in the emergency room and they will find themselves without any patients...and paychecks.
I myself go to Summerville Medical and I have SC Blue Cross and Shield and I get treated like royalty. I haven't ever had any problems. However, one of my daughters has no insurance and they did the same thing to her, that they did to my mother....told her to go the FEDDER'S CLINIC. Well.........by law, they have to treat them BUT ONLY if they consider it a emergency. So I tell the family now to say that they have something serious or they will not see them. My mother now goes to Primary Care Center on Ashley PHos and Dorchester road. She said she gets ROYAL TREATMENT and they see her at once, no waiting and she pays $37.00 for her co-pay to Medicare... they file the rest. Once medicare lowers the price to physicans she will probably pay a little more but she said it is all worth it to be treated well instead of like she was treated at SMC.
Posted by abitskeptical on May 12, 2008 at 9:07 p.m. (Suggest removal)
katrenavantassle--I had never heard of SMC before reading your post...I live in West Ashely.
However, in looking it up I found that it is an ACUTE care hospital & EMERGENCY ROOM. Unless you have an emergency you should not be going there for your health care needs. That is an abuse of the ER. Telling them it is serious when it is not, also is an abuse of the ER, not to mention a lie.
Why are you so surprised that an ER is obligated by law to treated only emergencies?
If your mother was going for anything other than an emergency they had every right to tell her to go to another facility. From the sound of it she did not have an emergency...not if 2 places did not see her immediately.
The consequences for turning away true emergencies is so severe that you will not see ERs doing this on purpose -insurance or no insurance.
Some people think they are being treated like crap when they are not seen when & where they think they should be seen. They believe they have a right to be seen in an ER at their convenience for any ole thing that is bothering them. When this does not happen they often complain that they have been treated "like crap", when in fact they are merely ticked off because they were not allowed to abuse the ER system.
Perhaps this is not the case with your mothe or you. But from some of the other things you wrote it seems that you have some misconceptions about the purpose of an ER & person's "right" to be seen there for non-emergencies.