I have been writing here about the failure of health reform as it is currently being concocted. Medicare, which began as a boon to doctors and elderly patients, was always cursed with unrealistic expectations. It destroyed the American health insurance system by converting it to pre-paid care. Now, that model is collapsing.
The Mayo Clinic, praised by President Barack Obama as a national model for efficient health care, will stop accepting Medicare patients as of tomorrow at one of its primary-care clinics in Arizona, saying the U.S. government pays too little.
More than 3,000 patients eligible for Medicare, the government’s largest health-insurance program, will be forced to pay cash if they want to continue seeing their doctors at a Mayo family clinic in Glendale, northwest of Phoenix, said Michael Yardley, a Mayo spokesman. The decision, which Yardley called a two-year pilot project, won’t affect other Mayo facilities in Arizona, Florida and Minnesota.
The “pilot project” will quickly become the norm as the Medicare beneficiaries have little option. Other doctors have been dropping Medicare for the past ten years.
Mayo’s move to drop Medicare patients may be copied by family doctors, some of whom have stopped accepting new patients from the program, said Lori Heim, president of the American Academy of Family Physicians, in a telephone interview yesterday.
“Many physicians have said, ‘I simply cannot afford to keep taking care of Medicare patients,’” said Heim, a family doctor who practices in Laurinburg, North Carolina. “If you truly know your business costs and you are losing money, it doesn’t make sense to do more of it.”
The Mayo Clinic charges for the cash services are a bit higher than others I have seen.
A Medicare patient who chooses to stay at Mayo’s Glendale clinic will pay about $1,500 a year for an annual physical and three other doctor visits, according to an October letter from the facility. Each patient also will be assessed a $250 annual administrative fee, according to the letter. Medicare patients at the Glendale clinic won’t be allowed to switch to a primary care doctor at another Mayo facility.
A few hundred of the clinic’s Medicare patients have decided to pay cash to continue seeing their primary care doctors, Yardley said. Mayo is helping other patients find new physicians who will accept Medicare.
Good luck finding them.
Tags: health care
I know that it conflicts with the oath, but I’d like to see doctors boycott treating politicians and their families.
Yeah, yeah… I’m “lashing out” and in a “venting” rather than literally serious fashion, but I’ve gotta tell ya, Doc… you docs are part of the problem in the sense that most of you don’t speak up and tell your patients and the politicians what they need to hear.
If every doctor in America took a few hours to write a “Letter to My Patients” dealing with the issue of healthcare reform and sent it to everyone they’re currently treating or whom they’ve ever treated, well, then maybe we’d get some true reform.
I know… I know… you and your colleagues didn’t go to medical school in order to become “community organizers” or political pundits, but for Christ’s sake… if now isn’t the time for you and your brothers and sisters in the medical profession to take a stand…
(*SHRUG*)
Anyway… it’s New Year’s Day… we’re expecting company to arrive in a couple hours and we’ve still got to pick up a few last minute things at the store…
HAPPY NEW YEAR, Doc, and we’ll “chat” later.
(*WINK*)
BILL
I watched a couple of good football games today and am reading an interesting book. I’m ready for the weekend.
I’ve tried to read some positive stories about the current health care reform. NPR had the president of the AMA speaking in favor. I’m reminded of the motivational speaker joke about the potential lover who spent the whole session sitting on the edge of the bed, talking about how great it was going to be.
Sermo, an online physician only site, accuses the AMA president of lying. AMA has really lost credibility.
Hey Doc, would you mind cutting and pasting that Sermo article onto an email and shooting it to me? Thanks!
BILL