Health Tips

Part B drug proposal would limit medical care to reduce their salaries after 2010:

Dim view of that usually marks the Medicare fee schedule proposed for the coming year to a large extent, this time brighter for doctors looking for relief from reductions in wages and imminent.

In a major shift in policy from the previous administration, and health care centers and medical services had proposed deleting the doctor who administered drugs from the calculation of Medicare physician payment formula. Physician payment cut spending across the board when all the services the doctor - a category that includes Part B drugs - more than the annual targets. Remove the costs of drugs would reduce the level of expenditure that would exceed the goals and cuts the trigger.
Functional proposal, announced on July 1, will not diminish over the next year to be 21.5%, and cutting board. However, it would reduce the number of years after 2010 that physicians face cuts under the formula of payment, as it would reduce the size of cuts that still exist.

Over the next five years, is expected to push updates from the doctor between -6.3% and -5.4% will be replaced with the updates of -3.1% and 1.4%, "said Jonathan Blum, director of the Center for the functional management of medical care. This means that pay for medical care doctors an extra $ 45.4 billion during the five years that if the doctor who administered drug remained part of the payment formula.

This step can also make things easier for Congress to reverse the 21.5%, and reduce further reductions in the future, commissioned by the formula, because the cost of five years in Parliament legislation such as this change would decrease the same amount. Unless appointed by the Conference to remove the $ 45.4 billion, however, that spending will be added to the federal deficit.

American Medical Association, which along with other physician organizations pushing for the removal of the doctor who administered the drugs payment formula since 2002, and described the proposed move a historic victory for doctors and patients.

"We are very pleased that the Obama administration in accordance with the Convention on the crossings that do not belong in the payment of doctor drug formula," said President monopoly J. James Rohack, MD. "Instead of another Band-Aid fix, today's action paves the way for the Congress to ensure the payment of rates stable, reflecting an increase of the cost of maintaining medical practice and the elderly access to health care."