By Jordan Rau, Kaiser Health News A panel convened by a major medical group is recommending that Medicare heal its physician payment shortfalls with “drastic changes” in how it reimburses doctors and other providers, rather than seeking more taxpayer money. Medicare needs $138 billion over the next decade to avoid steep cuts in physician pay. [...]
March 4, 2013 By Leave a Comment
Could ‘Drastic Changes’ In Medicare Doctor Pay Fix Shortfalls in Physician Payment
March 2, 2013 By Leave a Comment
President Obama signals readiness to take on Medicare and entitlement spending.
During a Friday news conference on the national budget sequester, President Obama said that some Democrats will not touch the health care entitlement program for older Americans and those with disabilities. “And what I’ve said … is that I’m prepared to take on the problem where it exists, on entitlements, and do some things that [...]
February 28, 2013 By Leave a Comment
No fuss over Medicare cuts by sequester. Why not?
With the looming sequester hatchet ready to fall tomorrow, Medicare providers are among those that will take a two and a half percent reduction from the government. Under normal circumstances, you’d be hearing a big fuss from the industry. Why are they so silent? There are two reasons. First, the Obama Administration already announced its [...]
February 28, 2013 By Leave a Comment
Medicare Advantage, not fee-for-service, is the best way forward
Additional wholesale cuts to Medicare, such as the looming 2014 cuts to the Medicare Advantage program, have no political support and will backfire. Dramatic cuts in senior health care merely shift health care costs elsewhere. This was the consensus of a handful of senators and health care policy experts on Wednesday’s Senate hearing on the [...]
January 31, 2013 By Leave a Comment
150 Steps to $9.4 Trillion in Medicare Savings
The Kaiser Family Foundation released an ambitious plan to reform Medicare. The 216 page document includes 150 cost-cutting policies that amount to $9.4 trillion in Medicare spending cuts over the next decade. “We’ve had everyone from President Obama and Sen. John McCain to Alicia Keys in this room,” Kaiser Family Foundation president Drew Altman said [...]
