Speaking from the caregiver side, Medicare is a joke. The reimbursement rates are pathetic. I was told by a friend still in NJ that some hospitals are considering dropping their paramedic units because of costs -and it's tied, in a lot of places, to Medicare reducing reimbursement rates in recent years.
In the company I worked for as a medic Medicare patients accounted for approx. 60% of our patients yet only about 35% of our revenue. It used to be higher until Medicare reduced their reimbursement. I cannot recall the exact number, but we got less than $100 per call from Medicare - regardless of what was done for the patient. If the patient was in cardiac arrest that would not come close to covering the costs of equipment, medications, salaries, etc for that call. On Friday, May 1, 2009, Judah McAuley <[email protected]> wrote: > > On Fri, May 1, 2009 at 2:38 PM, Scott Stroz <[email protected]> wrote: >> >> Nothing run by the US government is 'low cost and high quality' > > A nice cannard but wrong. Government is not terribly good at all sorts > of things. It is really quite decent for many things. If government > was not, it would not exist or tossed out and reformed. People who > believe the contrary just can't be bothered to pay attention. > > Medicare is a fine example of something that provides pretty decent > results (could always be better of course) with costs that are > surprisingly good compared to other options, especially when you > consider the population they primarily serve. Now, if only they could > take the Medicare example and figure out how to apply that knowledge > to health care.... > > Its not like single payer healthcare is a new idea (I worked on it in > the early 90's) nor is it unproven. It may surprise you to hear this, > but it actually has been implemented by "governments" elsewhere with > quite acceptable results. > > If you don't like the idea of government, that's fine. Spouting off > stupid crap like "Nothing run by the US government is 'low cost and > high quality'" isn't terribly useful in any actual policy discussion. > It is demonstrably false and serves no purpose other than demonizing > one side of a debate with rhetoric designed to inflame rather than > educate. > > You have a medical background and could bring a nice dose of the > reality of your corner of the healthcare world to the discussion. How > does emergency medical fit into the overall picture of healthcare > reform in the United States? This is important shit. Whinging about > the generic "US Government" is not so useful. > > Judah > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;207172674;29440083;f Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:296603 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.5
