Reducing Medicare payments to hospitals?

[Cant trust em]

Is it true that hospitals and doctors are going broke because medicare consistently underpays them for their services? This bill continues this trend as part of the legislation. Why would we want to include this? Can anyone provide any information?

Thanks.

[Gman]

1. Medicare funding is being cut to correspond with the Medicare fraud being eliminated

doctors are not being paid sometimes what they want to be paid. But they are not going out of business by a long shot.

[Bitwit1234]

2. The previous administration cut payments by 21%

The democrats were supposed to have put it back to the previous percent. I don't know if they did or not, but the said they were going to. BUSH HATE GANG cut medicare payments, but he gave enormous tax breaks to the rich and corporations.

[sandnsea]

3. DeFazio got changes to Medicare reimbursement

It fixes some of the regional disparity problems.

Doctors and hospitals always say they're going broke because of reduced Medicare and Medicaid payments. They'd say the same if we had single payer. Oddly they don't say the same when they negotiate significant reduced cost deals through insurance companies.

[NJmaverick]

4. Doctors are not going broke, but hospitals are closing up

it's a combination of the Medicare reductions and the uninsured and the pressure from HMOs. Increasing the numbers on medicaid and those with insurance should help to offset the losses from Medicare though.

[Cant trust em]

5. Maybe that's why hospital stocks went up today.

I hope that would be the case.

[NJmaverick]

6. Health Care stocks went up because they were so low

the market hates uncertainty and now that they have a real bill there is relief.

[sandnsea]

8. They're expanding here

http://www.peacehealth.org/Oregon/

And this is a Catholic nonprofit that gives health care on a sliding scale, up to 100% free.

It says this is the #1 system in the West. If so, I feel sorry for the rest of you because we consider ourselves lucky to get an accurate diagnosis at the local hospital.

[Hell Hath No Fury]

7. I do know that doctors complain --

about the Medicare reimbursment rate.

My Mom's eye specialist -- a staunch Dem and single payer guy -- was telling me the rate often doesn't pay for what a proceedure costs him. He mentioned his high school loans were not fully paid off until he was 40 and he's just now really making money for himself, and the rate hurts him a great deal. This guy is not a guy with a fancy practice and big lifestyle -- he is a regular guy who went into a very expensive to educate specialty practice.

I told him, if our country was civilized, we would be paying for his higher education and then he wouldn't have to worry about high debt and Medicare reimbursment rates so much. :D He agreed.

[Cant trust em]

9. I'd like to see general practice medicine be covered under...

public service loan forgiveness programs. My opinion is that there are too many specialists out there. We need to be training more GPs and we should incentivize that medicine.

[Hell Hath No Fury]

10. I agree about GPs --

I think we should be cranking out as many as we can and using a financial program like you mentioned to do so. Specialist certainly have their places (my Mom benefits from the skill of several specialists for serious conditions), but an army of GPs would be a wonderful thing for the country. I would say that is one thing Cuba got VERY right -- their training of doctors.