Mayo Clinic in Arizona to Stop Treating Medicare Patients
This past week, hundreds of physicians on Sermo have seized on the Mayo institution’s decision to stop accepting Medicare as a major development. Although an incremental first step for Mayo, it is very consistent with a growing trend among physicians on Sermo that the best possible way to continue providing exceptional patient care is to opt out of government and third party payment programs. That Mayo was often pointed to as a paragon of exceptional, cost effective, healthcare delivery during the reform effort makes this development all the more striking. Click below to scroll through the hundreds of physician comments and see the results of the nearly 800 physicians who responded to the survey.
So much for Obama calling for Mayo style medicine throughout the country to save $$. IT COSTS MORE TO TREAT A MEDICARE PATIENT THAN CMS PAYS. MAYO family care in glendale goes Boutique!
More than 3,000 patients eligible for Medicare, the government's largest health-insurance program, will be forced to pay cash if they want to continue seeing their doctors at a Mayo family clinic in Glendale, northwest of Phoenix, said Michael Yardley, a Mayo spokesman. The decision, which Yardley called a two-year pilot project, won't affect other Mayo facilities in Arizona, Florida and Minnesota.
The Mayo organization had 3,700 staff physicians and scientists and treated 526,000 patients in 2008. It lost $840 million last year on Medicare, the government's health program for the disabled and those 65 and older, Mayo spokeswoman Lynn Closway said.
Mayo's hospital and four clinics in Arizona, including the Glendale facility, lost $120 million on Medicare patients last year, Yardley said. The program's payments cover about 50 percent of the cost of treating elderly primary-care patients at the Glendale clinic, he said.
see full article at
Are you a Physician?
Join the Sermo to participate in thousands of discussions right now. It's free and only for US physicians.
Need to Engage MDs?
Get the insights and analysis you need through our unique social media platform. Learn more.
