December 17, 2007
Medicare Cuts on the Horizon
Ohio Health Policy Review has an article posted regarding a planned 10% cut in Medicare payments to physicians scheduled to go into effect January 1, 2008.
If Congress doesn't override the cut, there are concerns that many physicians might stop accepting Medicare patients.
AssociatedContent.com reports on how this might affect access to care for some senior citizens.
When the cut happens in 2008, more than half of the Medicare physicians will half to reduce their staff by half, and 14 percent of physicians will get out of practicing all together. If the plan to reduce Medicare payments goes as planned, by the year 2015, a 40 percent cut would be imminent. With numbers like that, Medicare physicians would have to reduce their staff by almost 75 percent and almost 60 percent of physicians would stop providing care.
In the recent survey conducted by the American Medical Association on 8,955 physicians, 60 percent responded that they would have to limit the number of new Medicare patients that they treat. It also states that if the 10 percent cut goes into effect, physicians will have to defer investments made into their practices which include the purchase of new equipment.
The Columbus Dispatch has more information on the situation in Ohio.