MEDICARE Doctor reimbursement cuts lead to patient rejection reports

One doctor said it costs $50 to treat a Medicare patient for every $35 in reimbursements.
YOUNGSTOWN -- The impact of cuts in Medicare reimbursements is starting to be felt in the Mahoning Valley as some Medicare recipients scramble to find doctors who will accept them.
Karyn Frederick, executive director of the Mahoning County Medical Society, said she has received several calls in the past few months from seniors hunting for doctors after being rejected for treatment.
The reason is that the reimbursements are too low, said Frederick. She said one doctor told her it costs $50 to treat a Medicare patient for every $35 in reimbursements.
The issue is at the forefront now because the U.S. House of Representatives has passed H.R. 5063. The American Medical Association says it removes a legal obstacle and paves the way for correction of a Medicare physician payment error that the AMA says is threatening access to care for Medicare recipients.
An AMA survey says that 24 percent of physicians either have placed limits on the number of Medicare patients they treat or plan to institute limits soon.
Payment cuts
Because of government mistakes in calculating the Medicare payment formula, physicians have already taken a 5.4 percent Medicare payment cut and are facing an additional 12 percent in cuts over the next three years, which the AMA says would set Medicare payments in 2005 below the 1991 level. The AMA urged the Senate to follow the House's lead and pass the bill.
Although there is no locally generated survey of physicians as to the effect of the Medicare reimbursement gaffe, the AMA's survey broke down the results by states.
The AMA said Ohio would be the eighth-ranked state in total Medicare losses because of the 2003-2005 cuts, which would total about $452 million or $18,539 per physician. This comes on top of a 5.4 percent payment cut in 2002 that cost Ohio doctors about $95.3 million or $3,989 per physician, the AMA said.
According to the AMA survey, while Medicare payments cuts are likely to affect patient access nationwide, problems could be especially acute in Ohio, where 46 percent of family physicians are over age 50 and 24 percent are over age 60. Recent surveys indicate that many physicians over 50 are already planning early retirement, the AMA said.
Ohio's ratio of physicians per thousand Medicare beneficiaries is 14.4 compared with a national average of 15.7. Fifteen percent of Ohio residents are Medicare beneficiaries.
The scheduled Medicare cuts come at a particularly difficult time because of the spiraling cost of liability insurance that physicians are facing, medical society officials said.