Much has been made of Medicare’s “vaunted” ability to pay on time. Well, stories like these are not uncommon:
Each time the couple submitted the bill for Terry’s procedure, it was rejected. Each time, Medicare would say it wasn’t the couple’s primary insurer, and each time, the Sampsons would insist it was.And so it went, month after frustrating month. Harold Sampson said he had the doctor’s office resubmit the claim a half-dozen times, only to have Medicare say it wouldn’t pay.
There are instances where patients have had trouble getting lab tests reimbursed by Medicare as well. Something that the “Medicare-for-all” proponents conveniently leave out. (via Dr. Wes)
Related posts:
- Medicare cuts: A 6-month stay of execution
- The Medicare cuts are coming
- When you switch to Medicare
- Why hospitalized Medicare patients get re-admitted so frequently
- Trusting Medicare
- Pete Stark dares physicians to drop Medicare
- Once you hit Medicare age, good luck finding a primary care doctor
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Medicare stopped paying in the Northwest in 1997. Delays in payment exceeding 90 days. Internal medicine groups had trouble making payroll. The states affected did things like create no-interest loans to help the docs get through it. They finally sort of fixed it by the end of the year.
Then, contrary to their own rules, Medicare tried to get a repayment from me, over a payment they chose to dispute five years later. It was left over from that 1997 debacle, and in late 2003 (more than five years after the payment), they had some dispute about the charge.
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