FAQ: The Doc Fix Bill - What's in It?

[cadylou]

FAQ: Congress Passes A Bill To Fix Medicare’s Doctor Payments. What

Here's Kaiser's run down on what's in the Doc Fix bill that just passed.

 

[somarco]

Sure sounds wonderful .......... except for the part where docs are rewarded for healing patients and penalized if they don't get better or die.

Don't you think that will limit access to health care for those with chronic or terminal conditions?

I do.

 

[AllenChicago]

Sure sounds wonderful .......... except for the part where docs are rewarded for healing patients and penalized if they don't get better or die.

Don't you think that will limit access to health care for those with chronic or terminal conditions?

I do.

Doctors don't like this new formula. They have to wait until government designed metrics says that the patient is healed, which then allows them to be paid. Bringing in a faith-healer won't help move up that timeline either.

 

[somarco]

They have to wait until government designed metrics says that the patient is healed,

And the metrics are a moving target.

 

[cadylou]

Metrics that are "mandated" are always problematic. All I can think about when I hear this stuff is back when large corporations went on the "Quality Improvement" warpath. Everyone was re-tooling to win big awards (that were meaningless) and tying employee compensation and promotion to arbitrary metrics that were mostly internal. Many of those companies don't exist today . . . .I remember my brother (who then worked at the Federal systems division for IBM) that he never heard the word "layoff" until he heard the words "Baldridge Award" (which was the quality award everyone was after). These companies never looked at actual customer satisfaction and improvement in the MARKETPLACE.

I think you'll see something like this occur here where the government will talk about how they've improved things & conjure up fake awards for themselves, while patients literally 'die on the vine'. . . . .

Basically, the doctor is no longer in charge of care at all, and the patient has no control because the insurance company & the government are intermediaries dictating what they can/cannot have in the way of treatment in the first place.

 

[AllenChicago]

Today, HHS is patting themselves on the back for spending $316 BILLION fewer dollars on Medicare Beneficiaries between 2009 and 2013.

Ref: http://www.modernhealthcare.com/art...ng-growth-saves-medicare-316-billion-hhs-says

This zeal to save money is a bad omen and sign for what will happen within the Medicare program after these new physician/hospital payment parameters go into effect, IMO.
ac