Medicare reimbursements actually vary from state to state...so no...no trend except for in Texas.
-----Original Message----- From: Jerry Barnes [mailto:critic...@gmail.com] Sent: Wednesday, May 19, 2010 10:11 AM To: cf-community Subject: More on Health Care There's not enough name calling and venom on the list. A good thread about health care always gets the vitriol up:) Faced with soaring costs and budget contraints, Williamson County's health care district is tightening qualifications for those who apply for its indigent health care program, requiring proof of citizenship.<http://www.kxan.com/dpp/news/local/wilco-tightens-indigent-heal th-care> This Texas county is going to require a valid SSN in exchange for indigent health care program. Shades of AZ? Another quote from the article. The county has doubled in size the past decade, and costs for the indigent care have soared 142 percent in the past two years. Last year, the program dealt with 1,500 patients, 330 of whom were undocumented. Maybe it's related to why AZ is trying to enforce federal immigration laws. Another Texas related article; Texas doctors are opting out of Medicare at alarming rates, frustrated by reimbursement cuts they say make participation in government-funded care of seniors unaffordable.<http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/7009807.html> Two years after a survey found nearly half of Texas doctors weren't taking some new Medicare patients, new data shows 100 to 200 a year are now ending all involvement with the program. Before 2007, the number of doctors opting out averaged less than a handful a year. More than 300 doctors have dropped the program in the last two years, including 50 in the first three months of 2010, according to data compiled by the Houston Chronicle. Texas Medical Association officials, who conducted the 2008 survey, said the numbers far exceeded their assumptions. Looks like those greedy doctors aren't satisfied with their pay. Another ringing endorsement of government ran health care? Maybe it's just a Texas thing. By the way, Wal-green's in WA stopped taking medicare for drug prescriptions. A pattern developing here? Final article The new healthcare law will pack 32 million newly insured people into emergency rooms already crammed beyond capacity, according to experts on healthcare facilities. <http://thehill.com/business-a-lobbying/98025-health-reform-threatens-to-ove rwhelm-already-crammed-emergency-rooms> A chief aim of the new healthcare law was to take the pressure off emergency rooms by mandating that people have insurance coverage. The idea was that if people have insurance, they will go to a doctor rather than putting off care until they faced an emergency. <http://ad.thehill.com/www/delivery/ck.php?n=a9aaece3&cb=INSERT_RANDOM_NUMBE R_HERE> People who build hospitals, however, say newly insured people will still go to emergency rooms for primary care because they don't have a doctor. Massachusetts in 2006 created near-universal coverage for residents, which was supposed to ease the traffic in hospital emergency rooms. But a recent poll by the American College of Emergency Physicians found that nearly two-thirds of the state's residents say emergency department wait times have either increased or remained the same. I have also read that there is a shortage of general care physicians, which is leading to higher prices in some areas. If the government takes over health care and runs it like it runs medicare, will there be more or less incentive to go to med school? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| 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:318983 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/unsubscribe.cfm
