"Medicare reimbursements actually vary from state to state...so no...no trend except for in Texas."
It was a rhetorical question. It's actually a growing trend across our country. A 2009 survey of general practitioners by the American Academy of Family Physicians showed that 42 percent were not accepting new Medicaid patients. 65 million Americans are already living in areas the government has deemed short of primary care practitioners. And theyre not the only ones dropping out of the system. Walgreens and two other pharmacies in Seattle, Wash., decided to deny coverage to new Medicaid patients because of low reimbursements. The Mayo Clinic stopped accepting Medicaid patients in Nebraska and Montana due to the high administrative burden and low reimbursement levels. Mayos primary care clinic in suburban Phoenix, Ariz., also stopped accepting Medicare this year. To make the problem even more interesting, rural areas are not having the same drop out rate. However, it is due to their patients not having private insurance or money. However, Many doctors are leaving rural areas because of this. They cannot continue to make a living at the discounted rates rates or with the delayed payments. So, these rural areas are left with fewer doctors. Why are doctors leaving medicare? These are some reason I found at http://aaucm.org Why are more doctors opting out of Medicare and insurance programs? There are a number of reasons. - Medicare regularly cuts the rates of reimbursement, which means doctors earn less for office visits and various procedures - There is a longer delay than ever before for doctors to get reimbursements from Medicare - Medicare has a very convoluted, bureaucratic process that allows some tests and treatments, refuses to pay for others, and limits how a doctor can practice medicine ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Order the Adobe Coldfusion Anthology now! http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Coldfusion-Anthology-Michael-Dinowitz/dp/1430272155/?tag=houseoffusion Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:319255 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/unsubscribe.cfm
