Thank you Al for that information.
I read Family Practice Management and Medical Economics, every issue. And there are more and more stories of physicians "opting out" of Medicare and billing the Medicare patients directly. Also, more and more physicians across the nation are dropping Medicare patients altogether.
I think there are too many interests at hand for Universal Healthcare to be passed into law anytime soon. However, we will be increasingly affected by Medicare changes in attempt to save this failing system. These changes have YET to save us time or improve efficiency. In fact the more they tweak the system, the more they reduce our efficiency in seeing Medicare patients and reduce physicians' willingness to accept Medicare patients.
Should we all band together and form our own lobby group? Probably. IF CMS continues to cut our payment (which they will according to current legislation), and IF they continue to mandate increasingly complex rules (which they haven't yet ceased to do), THEN we won't NEED to band together. Most physicians will drop Medicare out of pure necessity. Where will that leave CMS, Congress, AAFP, AARP, and the millions of aging U.S. adults? It's going to leave them all up CCHIT creek without a paddle.
