Providers fear impact of Medicare changes

Look out! If and when Medicare changes come, your institution may be hit hard.  That's the conclusion drawn by many providers, who fear that the proposed reimbursement changes will prove to be far more than a "shift" in funds. Theoretically, providers as a group won't actually lose money. The plan would simply reallocate the $125 billion a year that Medicare pays to hospitals and attempt to cut out biases and distortions that make some patients profitable and others not. But there's nothing simple about it, and providers who have run the numbers are quite upset.

Medicare is considering the biggest set of changes to reimbursement since the original introduction of diagnosis-related groups in 1983. The New York Times says some new technologies and treatments could have their reimbursement rates cut 20 to 30 percent. Reimbursement for clot-busting drugs for stroke victims could drop 35 percent, implanting a defibrillator would see a 23 percent cut and the use of a drug-eluting stent in a coronary artery would be cut by 33 percent.

- see New York Times article for more on the proposed changes

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