Study Finds Doctors Taking More New Medicare Patients
Posted on: Wednesday, 11 January 2006, 18:00 CST
By KEVIN FREKING, Associated Press writer
WASHINGTON The percentage of physicians who accept new Medicare patients has increased over the past fours years despite a slight drop in physicians' reimbursement rates, a study shows.
The findings suggest that doctors would not quit seeing Medicare patients if Congress had gone ahead with a proposed 4.4 percent cut in reimbursement rates in 2006, one of the authors said.
Paul Ginsburg, president of the Center for Studying Health System Change, a nonpartisan research organization, said that year after year of fee cuts would lead to an exodus. But, based on recent history, most doctors are willing to accept a one-time hit, he said.
"Policymakers should recognize that Medicare fees are only one factor in physician decisions to accept new patients," he said.
Congress is expected to halt the pay cut when they return to Washington this month.
The American Medical Association said its own survey shows that 38 percent of physicians planned to decrease the number of new Medicare patients if the 4.4 percent cut went through.
Dr. J. Edward Hill, the association's president, noted that the formula Congress uses to set physician payments projects further cuts of 26 percent over the next six years, while the cost of practicing medicine is projected to increase at least 15 percent.
"The AMA, the commission that advises Congress on Medicare, and others fear that these cuts will harm seniors' access to care," Hill said.
Each year, Ginsburg's organization conducts a physicians' survey. The survey that encompassed parts of 2000 and 2001 showed that the percentage of U.S. physicians accepting all new Medicare patients stood at 71.1 percent.
The next year, Congress cut pay rates by 5.4 percent, and subsequent increases of 1.5 percent have occurred annually since then. The center's latest survey puts the percentage of doctors taking new Medicare patients at 72.9 percent.
Source: Columbian
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