The Trump administration has made clear its intentions to drastically reduce the size and intrusive nature of government. Let’s hope that extends to the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act, otherwise known as MACRA, the heavy-handed new government “value-based payment” program for medical care, enacted in 2015, and set to rear its ugly head beginning this year. MACRA must die. MACRA is administrative overkill in an industry already overburdened by …
Thankfully, the GOP did not pass Paul Ryan’s repeal and replace bill for Obamacare. Immediately after, I saw a headline hopefully concluding, “Medicare for all may be next.” In Medicare’s current form, this would be devastating for the health of America. I am a young geriatrician; I know a heck of a lot about Medicare. Most people don’t. They just see it as a great perk of turning 65 in …
If you are planning on complying with Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA), make sure to allot the appropriate time and funding necessary to update/upgrade your practice. Realize that the measures will be arbitrary, the data implementation arduous and the moments for live patient care fleeting. Expect that, no matter how Herculean the task may be, the finish line will move often and unexpectedly. Prepare to get …
Rationing of health care services according to an individual’s ability to pay — or, as the case may be, the inability to do so — is becoming more prevalent in the United States, both in the public and private insurance spheres. Commercial payers, for example, increasingly require doctors to follow a complex and time-consuming authorization process. Recent surveys show that 75 percent of doctors complain about this often unnecessary step.
Insurance …
One of the popular critiques of the American health care system is that it is high-volume, low-quality, and that this is a direct result of the traditional fee-for-service approach to paying doctors for medical care. In the past, doctors and hospitals have been paid much the same way that we pay for other goods and services. When they provide a service, such as an appointment or a procedure, they are …
The market for medical tourism grows as Americans increasingly seek medical care outside of the United States and pay cash for services. Patients know they can obtain adequate quality care in Mexico for out of pocket costs far lower than their insurance plans with high deductibles would cover. Posting basic outpatient visit and simple procedure prices could benefit our independent practices in the same way. The only thing worse than …
Three men walk into a deli for lunch, take a number, and sit quietly until called. There are no prices on display, nor is the food visible. The first man, Ron, is called to the counter and states that he is hungry when asked what brings him in. He presents his food insurance credentials, and five minutes later, he walks out the door with a 12-inch gourmet sandwich, a side …
Dear Dr. Price,
Congratulations on your upcoming appointment as the new Health and Human Services Secretary under President Trump. As a physician myself, it’s great to know that a fellow physician will head up the agency. I’m sure you understand too, having been a practicing orthopedic surgeon, how disheartening and frustrating it is to have non-clinical “experts” making key decisions about health care.
I’m sure you’ve also seen the news about how …
The concept of sickness insurance began in Germany in 1883. Chancellor Otto Von Bismarck initiated insurance for the poor. A decision about how these services were to be delivered is critical to understanding the contentious debates around health care. Could Bismarck have given vouchers for care as needed? Alternatively, should the government control the needed health care facilities?
Perhaps thinking the poor did not have the capability to manage their own health, he chose …
Dear patients,
One year ago, I wrote to you about my concerns for the future of my practice in light of upcoming changes to the Medicare system. I explained my anxiety about the Medicare Access and CHIPS Reauthorization Act (MACRA), a change in fee structure from fee-for-service (I treat you in the office, submit the bill to Medicare, and they pay the bill), to “value-based” payment (I …
President-elect Donald Trump has repeatedly vowed to “repeal and replace Obamacare.” A logical question is: With what? The announcement of Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga) as Trump’s nominee for secretary of health and human services provides some answers.
Unlike other Republican critics of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), Price, an orthopedic surgeon, has offered many replacement plans of unmatched detail. His Empowering Patients First Act was 242 pages …
It used to be that hospitals billed Medicare for the services they provided, and Medicare — I know this is crazy! – simply paid the bills.
Those days are rapidly receding into history. Soon, a significant chunk of hospital revenue will be at risk, under a series of Medicare pay-for-performance programs. The idea behind P4P (as the cool kids call it) is simple. Third-party payers, like insurance companies or the Medicare …
The AMA supports the nomination of Dr. Tom Price based on decades of interactions with him as a member of the AMA House of Delegates, Georgia state senator and as a member of the House of Representatives since 2005. Over these years, there have been important policy issues on which we agreed (medical liability reform) and others on which we …
On Tuesday, November 29, President-elect Donald Trump named Dr. Tom Price, a former orthopedic surgeon, current Republican congressman, and chair of the House Budget Committee, as his pick for Secretary of Health and Human Services.
The same day, the American Medical Association issued a press release enthusiastically endorsing Price for the position.
The next day, Dr. Andrew Gurman, the president of the AMA, came to my …
MACRA — the Medicare Access and Chip Reauthorization Act of 2015 — is a disaster.
It will take the joy out of practicing medicine without significantly improving patient outcomes (except in a circular way) or reducing cost, by moving medical decisions from the bedside to the C-suite. It benefits primarily the health policy community — consultants, academics, executives — who designed it. Ironically, MACRA was one of the few major pieces …
In the last decade, the federal government has undertaken considerable steps to control the way doctors care for their patients. Its goal is to improve healthcare quality and lower costs, but the very regulation tasked with achieving this has created a paperwork nightmare that actually does the opposite: it impedes care and increases costs.
I’m referring to the Physician Quality Reporting System, or PQRS, which originated with the Tax Relief and …
Americans spend more per capita on medical care than just about any other country and, yet they often have little to show for it. Americans have worse access to care than people in other countries, and are often less likely to receive primary care services, like preventive therapies and screening tests. Determined to address these problems, Medicare leaders have been testing out new models of primary care, hoping to find …
The British National Health Service (NHS) was born in 1948, based on legislation passed that year mandating free high-quality health care for all paid by taxes. In contrast, the U.S. started Medicare in 1966 to provide health care to the elderly and the State Children’s Insurance Program (SCHIP) in 1993 to fund health care for children whose parents were unable to afford it. Health care in the UK is still …
One of the biggest shifts in American health care over the last several years (and we’ve only just seen the tip of the iceberg so far) is the shift of the system away from the traditional fee-for-service model, and towards a system based more on quality, outcomes, and yes, a degree of rationing.
By all measures, we know that the pure fee-for-service model — at least mostly funded by Medicare — …
Physicians spend almost twice as much time each day typing on computers and filling out paperwork as they do seeing patients. That astonishing conclusion comes from research published this week in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
Just think about that. How would you feel if you spent two hours documenting every hour of work that you do? How would your boss feel about it? You’d be depressed and frustrated; your boss …
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