A Doctors' Note On Medicare (Page 5 of 8) in pdf

10 Facts Seniors Need To Know About Medicare’s Future

Currently, More Than 1 In 10 Physicians Are Not Accepting New Medicare Patients.

Physician surveys show that

while a small minority, some physicians do not accept Medicare patients. For 2008, the National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey

shows 10 percent did not accept new Medicare patients and 17 percent of primary care physicians did not accept new Medicare

patients. In another 2008 physician survey, about 12 percent reported accepting some new Medicare patients and 14 percent

indicated that they did not accept any new Medicare patients.

When The Hospital Insurance Trust Fund Is Insolvent, No One Knows How Providers Will Get Paid.

As the

Congressional Research Service explains: “There are no provisions in the Social Security Act that govern what would happen if [insolvency] were

to occur. For example, there is no authority in law for the program to use general revenue to fund Part A services in the event of such a

shortfall.”

To Control Medicare Spending, Instead Of Trusting Seniors, The President Empowered 15 Unelected Bureaucrats.

The

President’s health care law empowered a board of unelected bureaucrats to “reduce the per capita rate of growth in Medicare spending.”

These 15 Medicare bureaucrats will serve on the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB) and will be politically-appointed. They will be

charged with developing proposals that cut Medicare – and because the panel is prohibited from suggesting common-sense changes, the panel

will only be able to cut reimbursements to physicians and other health care providers, resulting in delay and denial of care. Unfortunately,

judicial review of IPAB decisions is prohibited by law, so seniors and physicians cannot seek relief in court even if they are negatively impacted

by the Board’s decisions.

Doctors Overwhelmingly Believe the Independent Payment Advisory Board Will Hurt Seniors’ Access to Care.

In a recent

survey, 80 percent of doctors said the Independent Payment Advisory Board in the President’s health care law will cut reimbursement rates to

doctors, which will harm seniors’ access to care.

Without Congressional Action, Medicare Reimbursement Rates Will Drop About 30 Percent At the End of the Year –

Which Would Harm Seniors’ Access to Care.

The Medicare program reimburses physicians by using a payment mechanism known as

the Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR). Congress established the SGR in 1997 as a funding formula designed to adhere to overall spending targets.

The SGR works by effectively decreasing reimbursement levels one year if Medicare reimbursements to physicians another year were higher

than a set target. Though cost-containment is the right goal, the SGR mechanism failed to achieve its goal. In fact, since 2004, Congress has had

to work to prevent the SGR from huge reductions in payments to physicians that could harm seniors’ access to care. Now, unless Congress

intervenes, Medicare’s physician reimbursements will plummet by about 30 percent on January 1, 2013 because of the SGR.

Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, “Health Care Spending and the Medicare Program,” June 2011,

“Drs Coburn, Barrasso, Gingrey and Roe Release Report on Coming Insolvency of

Medicare,” April 16, 2012,

Senators Tom Coburn, M.D. and John Barrasso, M.D, “Medicare & You,” 2012,

“New Survey: 75% of Physicians Largely Oppose the Affordable Care Act, the President’s Healthcare

Law,” March 29, 2012,

A Doctors' Note On Medicare Page 5