Medicare will go broke in less than a decade unless something is done to prevent it. And Health and Human Services is proposing a plan that might help. At a news conference held on 4/22/19 Secretary Alex Azar announced a program that would help to eliminate one money wasting aspect of how Medicare spends money.
Many patients have observed this first hand, and one doesn't have to look hard for articles and books about how doctors subject patients to tests they most likely don't need. It happens because of the way doctors are paid by Medicare.
The new plan would create an optional program in which primary care providers could accept a flat fee while giving up the current fee-for-services plan which rewards doctors for those unnecessary services.
Here's hoping it works.
Meanwhile, Democrats are falling all over themselves to get on record as supporters of "Medicare-for-all" along with unrealistic plans on how to pay for it. Can Democrats win on that? Consider this: government overseers predict Medicare hospital program will be insolvent by 2026.
Relevant links:
Medicare hospital fund reserves likely to be exhausted in 2026: U.S. report;
Social Security is headed for insolvency by 2035, government says;
Through New Pay Model, CMS Wants To Reward Primary Care Physicians For Keeping Patients Healthy, Out Of Hospital;
C-span video HHS news conference;
HHS To Deliver Value-Based Transformation in Primary Care;
HHS NEWS: HHS To Deliver Value-Based Transformation in Primary Care.
For details about the program see either one of those last two links.
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2:54 PM 4/23/2019
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