Well I am not in Florida yet, I am in Indiana ,and no one can quite figure out all of the ramifications of what will be. I am a Registered Nurse and work for a group of 20+ Cardiologists. This all feels like The Perfect Storm to me.

Medicare does not cover the costs that are accrued to a doctors office;so each office rely's on those patients not on Medicare and their insurance coverage to make up the difference. I wonder how Florida does that with such a large Medicare population. I also worked in an OB/GYN office for 10 years and understand this to be true across the board in doctor's practices.

I know many will think-now it will be easy to have the doctor cut his fees but he did go to school all of those years, give up his family life, work weekends and nights, pay for law suits and malpractice insurance and work holidays just to cut his fees...believe me it won't be the doctor that reduces his fee. I'm not sure it should be either. We want to continue to reward those with such devotion and sacrifice to their profession so they will want to continue to practice great medicine. However me and 25 other RN's have already been downsized from a large OB/GYN office. We were too expensive. They did away with my department in Test Results. It will be services and personnel that will be cut.

I'm not saying that we should have kept things the same or that we should have changed them I am just reporting what I know to be true so others can decide what they think.

In my case, I am going to expect the worse but hope for the best. We have been a very blessed people and this is a great nation.

IMHO

Originally Posted by REH7380

... it is time to just walk away and let the facts speak for themselves.

My point exactly - there are no facts yet. Believe me, the sky is not falling. Creative people adapt and amend and change. There is no point in getting all lathered up about something that hasn't happened yet.

When someone tells me to read something and then tells me how I should react to it then I automatically feel that I'm being sold a bill of goods because they don't want me to form my own opinion.

Originally Posted by Xavier

My point exactly - there are no facts yet. Believe me, the sky is not falling. Creative people adapt and amend and change. There is no point in getting all lathered up about something that hasn't happened yet.

When someone tells me to read something and then tells me how I should react to it then I automatically feel that I'm being sold a bill of goods because they don't want me to form my own opinion.

There seems to be a lot of knee-jerk reaction to this on both sides. Xavier, you are assuming that this is related to the health care bill before Congress now and hence claim the facts are not known and we should wait until they are. However, in this case the facts are known since these cuts are taking place right now and hence do not include any additional future cuts that the House and Senate may come up with:

RULE HIGHLIGHTS:

CMS’ final 2010 Physician Fee Schedule includes cuts to nearly all services performed by cardiologists, ranging from 10 to more than 40 percent over four years beginning Jan. 1, 2010. These cuts are separate from current health reform efforts and do not include the 21.2 percent Medicare physician payment cut due to the sustainable growth rate (SGR).

The impact on individual cardiovascular practices is causing many practices to take drastic measures according to a recent survey:

60 percent of private practice cardiology plans staff layoffs
46 percent of private practice cardiology plans to eliminate service lines
17 percent of private practice cardiology will stop accepting Medicare
39 percent are considering integration into a hospital system
http://www.acc.org/advocacy/advoc_is...rulecmscut.cfm

Originally Posted by NJblue

There seems to be a lot of knee-jerk reaction to this on both sides. Xavier, you are assuming that this is related to the health care bill before Congress now and hence claim the facts are not known and we should wait until they are. However, in this case the facts are known since these cuts are taking place right now and hence do not include any additional future cuts that the House and Senate may come up with:

Thank you. That brings some light to the discussion that hadn't previously been provided. You are also correct in stating that we, both sides of the discussion, have been knee jerk in our reaction. I plead Guilty. I have little reason to doubt the Advocacy Group that provided the information, however they are representing a "special interest" group and one should take that into account before assuming that they haven't embellished on the facts and their consequences. Their little ticker-tape at the top of their website includes some questionable sources for their news flashes. "The Hill" jumped right out at me. Thanks again for taking the time.

Originally Posted by REH7380

I visited the Cardiologist today and here is a letter all should read and be upset about: There are probably about 8-10 cardiologists in this practise so it is not a small problem to The Villages Community..!!
"The 2010 Medicare Fee Schedule mandates that on January 1, 2010 severe cuts in cardiology physician fees will begin. This cut is being phased in over four years because the government used flawed data to make their calculations. In addition, there are Congressionally mandated cuts of more than 20 percent in all Medicare physicians fees, regardless of specialty. The results of these combined government policies are that our practice is facing cuts ranging from 25 to almost 50 percent.
Such drastic reductions in fees are going to seriously hamper our ability to continue to see you, our patients as we do today. We feel the need to warn you that these reductions will translate into decreased services for patients, cuts in staff, probable transfer of care to the hospitals resulting in delay in needed care. Please understand the hospitals cannot handle the mass influx of patients who will be needing services thar they once received in our office. Making sure you have the best quality of care will always be our number one priority. Caring for people is why we all dedicated our lives to heart patients. In the very near future it is going to be a difficult climate
to operate in our current manner.
We have built our office facility and trained our staff to best take care of each patient. We believe that the care you receive is critical to your quality of life. With these cuts we may not be able to provide some of the services that patients have come to depend on and in the long run; if the current policies are not changed we may be forced to close our doors.
As a cardiovascular patient we urge you to contact our lawmakers about the impact of our changing practice on you. The law is clear-we face cuts unless Congress acts. In advance we thank you for understnding our changing environment."
There are other facts to follow..

Thanks for posting. This is fact and this is happening many places other than TV. Brother-in-law is Doctor and has stated the same as above, his concern also is losing the ability (finanically) being able to service seniors.

I agree belongs in POLITICAL FORUM!

The posters themselves turn it into a political post. Leave it in medical and if a peep posts something that is political in it, then remove that post. Many people (like ZCaveman stated) would not see this important piece of info if it were moved to political.

It's sad that a discussion of senior's medical benefits which they paid a premium for all their working lives now becomes a political argument. That's what we get when we allow the government to take over these important parts of our welfare.
Not only has reduced payments for physician's services already become law, but in June 2010 the insurance companies are, by law, required to increase the deductibles with supplemental medicare policies. You know, the ones where you choose plan A,B,C,etc.
This is the law now and not dependent on what happens with the bills before Congress today.
I do not know when these new regulations were passed or why we seniors were not better informed about them previously. I would have thought an advocacy group like the AARP would have notified its members that this was happening.

Originally Posted by Avista

I agree belongs in POLITICAL FORUM!

Yes this thread belongs in the Political forum because that is all this medical reform bill is all about. It is all about Obama's political ideology.

My goodness. Doesn't anyone understand this is not apart of that bill. It is going to deprive medical help to those that most need it.
Let me state from the start that I am personally fully covered and would not be impacted by any of these changes but I do have sympathy and feelings for those that will be hurt.
Let's be logical. Fact: More members read Medical than Political. Fact: This is a medical issue and not a "political issue", Fact: Some therefore want the data to be less transparent to the members, Fact: The only way the discussion is diverted to Political is if(a) someone either wants less member to know of the potential problem (b) they are uneducated as to the what the status of the issue is or (c) just like to stir up trouble regardless if it hurts senior citizens. KNOWLEDGE IS WISDOM..
The terrible problem is that when people are succesful in making things less transparent they deprive the citizens of information and "bad things happen". WHY DO SOME FEAR THE SUNSHINE COMING IN??? WHAT MOTIVATES SOME TO RUN OR WORK TO HIDE POTENTIAL PROBLEMS? I WISH I KNEW WHY BUT I CAN'T EVEN IMAGINE WHAT DRIVES PEOPLE IN THIS DIRECTION.

Originally Posted by REH7380

...............WHAT MOTIVATES SOME TO RUN OR WORK TO HIDE POTENTIAL PROBLEMS? I WISH I KNEW WHY BUT I CAN'T EVEN IMAGINE WHAT DRIVES PEOPLE IN THIS DIRECTION. [/B]

Shouting like this is the "norm" in political!

Originally Posted by REH7380

I visited the Cardiologist today and here is a letter all should read and be upset about

I saw this question posted previously, and also wondered:

Was this letter provided by your cardiologist? If so, which office? If not, what is the source of the letter? Thanks much.

Originally Posted by REH7380

Please look at the thread category of "Medical" where it was posted and where I believe it belongs. It is a subject that is critical to every Senior citizen regarding their medical protection and it should not be hidden by some discussion regarding the differences between democrats and republicans.
I am sorry some feel it necessary to pretend being "intellectual" as opposed to concentrating on serious matters. Unfortunately, at time these attempts
at being "cute" actually confuse what would otherwise be considered very serious impacts on the quality of life.

BARRY GOLDWATER, 1964


LET ME REMIND YOU THAT EXTREMISM
IN THE DEFENSE OF LIBERTY IS NO VICE.

LET ME REMIND YOU ALSO THAT
MODERATION IN THE PURSUIT OF
JUSTICE IS NO VIRTUE.

If you feel that just sitting around and waiting to be shown what is and what is not, I feel sorry for you. We are educated people, not sheep. Look at our founding fathers and ask yourselves what action they took in the midst of possible catastrophe, was it controversial, did they take a stand, or were they led to slaughter? If we do not stand up for ourselves then we are doomed. And you can put this in any of the forums for discussion.

OK so exactly what are we supposed to do...gn