Medicare’s proposed fee payment changes are NOT in your best interest…

Medicare would like to “streamline” physician documentation.  And, in exchange for this, they are decreasing the reimbursement for many office visits.  Most Medicare patients are complex, as there is a lifetime of medical conditions to consider.  Many Medicare patients have multiple medical conditions and, as a physician, I aim to address them all at each visit.  This means the patient can spend more time living OUTSIDE of my office and not seeing me for one medical condition per office visit.

What Medicare is proposing is like…. if I am a restaurant owner, every customer can order a filet mignon, but be charged for a kids meal.  This is unsustainable.

The New York Times recently had a good article https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/22/us/politics/medicare-payments-trump.html.

In my town, many physicians do not accept Medicare as the reimbursement schedule AS IS barely covers the overhead costs (rent, utilities, office staff, medical malpractice insurance, etc).  With this proposed change, if it passes, I am certain that fewer physicians will accept Medicare.

If you would like to speak up for yourself, please email the IRS directly.  They will accept comments until September 2018.  Input regulations.gov and search for CMS 1693.