[dreambeliever128]

I just heard this on the news. The Mayo Clinic in Arizona will no longer accept Medicare. I am wondering how many other places across the Country will follow. It's due to loss of money. Of course if the hospitals along with the Pharmacutical companies didn't rip patients off by unbelieveable charges then they wouldn't be quote "losing money".

What's your thought on this?

Ada

[Dubious]

Originally Posted by dreambeliever128

I just heard this on the news. The Mayo Clinic in Arizona will no longer accept Medicare. I am wondering how many other places across the Country will follow. It's due to loss of money. Of course if the hospitals along with the Pharmacutical companies didn't rip patients off by unbelieveable charges then they wouldn't be quote "losing money".

What's your thought on this?

Ada

True.

But, Medicare has a "set" fee schedule so that no matter what the hospital charges, it is going to get the same amount. I don't know about hospitals but for physicians, MC pays presently pays about 30%-80%, depending on the procedure, of current usual, customary and reasonable fees. And these reimbursements are down close to 50% of what they were in the 80's.

And you will see more of this. Hospitals and physicians are businesses too, have high overhead and employ lots of people who want to get paid. As reimbursement schedules go down, which they are (MC came close to dropping payment another 21% 3 weeks ago), to well below that at which medical facilities break even, they will no longer accept that type of insurance, even if it's MC. They have overhead. They also treat a lot of people who have no ability to pay or are underinsured and then must take as payment in full, partial reimbursement from state or federal sources and forced to take a loss. The better plans then pay more to offset so the facility can stay open.

In L.A., they have had several hospitals flat closed because too many people had no or poor insurance, were using the ER's as their PCP so the facilities went broke relying too heavily on government reimbursement. The "nanny state" can't work in healthcare, unfortunately, as proven in L.A.