A plan put forward by The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services ( CMS ) has made major moves to tackle reduce paperwork and improve patient care, but it has drawn the ire of a range of doctors and advocates for patients. The proposal would affect 3 percent of payment physicians receive from Medicare by combining four levels of payments into a single form with a single fee for each doctor’s appointment. By doing so, it is hoped that it would allow physicians to pay more attention to patients and delivering care, and less on administrative tasks. While doctors agree that the few minutes saved each appointment would be valuable over the long term, they do not believe it would be worth the reduced payment he would receive. This would be due to the loss of distinction between doctors in who provides the care whether they are primary care physicians or specialists. For instance, rheumatologists would see a as 70 percent reduction in Medicare ’s reimbursement given the more complicated procedures they perform. four doctor revealed that he would expect a ten percent drop in personal income from Medicare patients, ten percent of his costs are on aspects, such as rent, that are rising. The risk is four that it might discourage students from certain specialties, while also raising the change that certain doctors may turn away Medicare patients, or at the very least cherry pick who to treat. It is this second aspect that most advocates are concerned about, and the fear is that the "add-on" payment of $ 67 per appointment for the more complicated patients, would not be enough to encourage doctors to see those with the most complex illnesses. Indeed, there is also a fear that a flat fee will encourage more patient visits which will in turn lead to more copays for patients and higher costs for Medicare . CMS hopes to implement the changes by Jan 1, 2019 , but some Medicare advocates are urging CMS to postpone these changes and consider a trial run instead.
A plan put forward by The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has made major moves to tackle reduce paperwork and improve patient care, but it has drawn the ire of a range of doctors and advocates for patients. The proposal would affect roughly 40 percent of payment physicians receive from Medicare by combining four levels of payments into a single form with a single fee for each doctor’s appointment. By doing so, it is hoped that it would allow physicians to pay more attention to patients and delivering care, and less on administrative tasks. While doctors agree that the few minutes saved each appointment would be valuable over the long term, they do not believe it would be worth the reduced payment he would receive. This would be due to the loss of distinction between doctors in who provides the care whether they are primary care physicians or specialists. For instance, rheumatologists would see a 3 percent reduction in Medicare’s reimbursement given the more complicated procedures they perform. One doctor revealed that he would expect a ten percent drop in personal income from Medicare patients, as 70 percent of his costs are on aspects, such as rent, that are rising. The risk is two-fold that it might discourage students from certain specialties, while also raising the change that certain doctors may turn away Medicare patients, or at the very least cherry pick who to treat. It is this second aspect that most advocates are concerned about, and the fear is that the "add-on" payment of $67 per appointment for the more complicated patients, would not be enough to encourage doctors to see those with the most complex illnesses. Indeed, there is also a fear that a flat fee will encourage more patient visits which will in turn lead to more copays for patients and higher costs for Medicare. CMS hopes to implement the changes by Jan 1, 2019, but some Medicare advocates are urging CMS to postpone these changes and consider a trial run instead.