Well it’s that time of year again for release of Medicare rule changes and payment “adjustments” prior to public comment periods before implementing them later in the year.
It still to this day amazes me how different disciplines of healthcare consistently have to fight tooth and nail every single year to get paid appropriately for the services we provide.
It is a constant battle and unfortunately for many years we settle for a reduced cut versus what was intintially propsed. This year is a propsed 2.9% average cut in reimbursement. According to McKnights.com, since 2001 that would amount to an overall payment cut of 29%
Never would happen in the corporate world
Can you name me one industry that would have cut their prices for goods and services by 29% over that same period?
Do you think the large retail chains, hotel chains, and restaurant chains would drop their prices every year to the tune of 29%? That would have Wall Street running for cover like the world was ending.
The hardest hit is the rural areas
The cost of delivery of care is significantly more difficult the more rural of areas we work in. There are less and less resources (skilled and licensed providers of all types). This effects the full chain of providing care. It becomes harder and harder to be on the positive side of a razor thin margin the further out from cities we go. Ultimately the ones it hurts are the citizens of all ages as providers of all types have to return closer to urban centers to afford to deliver the care.
No adjustments for inflation
To further compound the effects of continuous cuts, there are no adjustments made for inflation. The Physician Fee Schedule has not been adjusted other than cuts to the conversion factor in decades.
At what point will Congress actually fix the problem?
Through constant advocacy like that performed by resources like ADVION and the American Medical Association, there are the constant call to fix a broken system. Unfortunately it seemes it is just not worth the effort to actually fix the system. It is better to just propose a cut then give some relief by decreasing the amount.
It is time for us healthcare workers to be treated fairly and establish a reliable and predictable reimbursement plan. We should be able to establish growth like other industries rather than hope the cuts don’t hurt quite so much.
There also needs to be fairness and equal equity involved. Does a plumber and electrician work off the same reimbursement schedule for services provided? So why are there multiple disciplines in vastly different aspects of healthcare working off of one “Physician Fee Schedule”?
Be an advocate
So regardless of if you are a Healthcare worker or a Healthcare recipient, you need to be a voice for change. Although most of the talks are based on Medicare, all other insurance companies use the Physician Fee Schedule to establish their reimbursement to all of our citizens that utilize any type of Health insurance or Healthcare setting.
We also need to think about the future and realize that eventually you may be the Medicare beneficiaries.
