While the 21.2 percent cut to Medicare reimbursement for physicians isn't officially scheduled to take effect until tomorrow pending Congressional measures to reverse the cut, many doctors nationwide already are feeling the financial pain and have been forced to, or are planning on, dropping patients.
Doctors like Colorado-based family physician Oswaldo Grenardo and Nevada gynecologist Keith Brill both would like to see a permanent fix for a cut that has been put off time and again, but neither is optimistic. Brill recently closed his clinic to Medicare patients in order to stay in business.
"It's a hit that we frankly can't afford to take," Grenardo said, according to the Denver Post. "Creating a permanent fix would eliminate a lot of the frustration."
Brill told the Las Vegas' KTNV.com that it will be a "real tragedy" if a permanent fix ultimately can't be made. "Medicare is not covering us to pay for the cost of a visit," he said. "Doctors would be losing money to take care of Medicare patients."
A payment patch through April 30 is expected to pass later this week according to Kevin Burke, director of the American Academy of Family Physicians Division of Government Relations, AAFP News Now reports. Should that occur, Burke believes that Congress will put in place yet another patch, extending the current payment rate to Oct. 1, something that the AAFP ultimately isn't too thrilled with.
"We need a permanent fix so that patients and their doctors don't have to continue to worry about whether the federal government is going to be a good business partner or not," AAFP CEO Alfred Gilchrist told the Denver Post. "Doctors don't have the good fortune of being able to delay their business expenses like the Congress."
For more information:
- read this Denver Post article
- check out this ktnv.com piece
- read this AAFP News Now article