02/26/2014    Michael Rosenblatt, DPM

New Medicare Cuts Coming

Most of your retired patients have been
"conditioned" to expect Medicare to pay for their
care. For DPMs, this challenge consisted of
explaining why they don't have routine foot care
covered.

Medicare podiatry patients chronically "shop" to
find DPMs who manufacture coverage for them. But
look out. It's about to get much worse and more
widespread. Government is now planning at least 6%
cuts for managed care insurers, and possibly more
later: http://www.moneynews.com/Personal-
Finance/Medicare-Obama-health-
insurers/2014/02/20/id/553761?
ns_mail_uid=449403&ns_mail_job=1556997_02232014&pr
omo_code=168A2-1

Now is the time to explain to patients what will
hit them in 2015. Health costs are like trying to
squash a bubble; it always pops up in another
spot. They will have to expect previously covered
services to be no longer covered, in part or
whole. Fighting operant conditioning is always an
uphill battle. But it is easier if you start
sooner rather than later. You might consider
publishing a small handout for your Medicare
patients: "The New Medicare Cuts and How They Will
Affect You."

Patients will end up spending more for their own
healthcare, which will now include ALL their
providers. "Doctor shopping" for physicians who
"manufacture" illnesses that are covered will not
be tolerated by Government. There is plenty of
room in prison for medical doctors who prescribe
Holter monitors for nearly all of their patients,
along with DPM's who charge for nail surgery
without local anesthesia. Perhaps they will share
the same cell (Government cost-cutting at its
best).

Without discussing the morality of coverage for
pre-existing conditions (at bargain prices) for
all who ask, someone has to pay for it. It's time
that your patients were informed that it will be
they who do. They were the ones' who voted in this
Government. There's no way to sugar coat this. It
is now the law.

Michael Rosenblatt, DPM, San Jose, CA,
Rosey1@prodigy.net

There are no more messages in this thread.