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The Senate has started a bill to require Medicare to pay the same for a service no matter where it is delivered. This would be huge blow to the hospitals who gauge patients and a huge win for the patients. Watch for huge money to be paid by the hospitals to defeat it.
Under Medicare rules the hospitals will get a 2/9% bump in pay. This is for the outpatient centers and surgical centers. This is also to help pay for the new staffing requirements for hospitals for OB patients. Home health and dialysis providers will get a 0.5% bump next year and patients treated for end stage renal will get a 3.7% hike.
CMS is going ahead with the 2.9% DECREASE in payments for physicians. There is a bill now being introduced to make that go away and give the physician a very small increase instead. I wonder how many physicians will stop taking Medicare patients or at least foisted them off onto lower level providers.
Staffing firm NES Health has said they are out of money and can not pay their emergency room physician this month. They say they will pay them next month but who knows. They were rejected when applying for a loan. Doesn't sound good.
DISCLAIMER: Although this article is updated periodically, it reflects the author's point of view at the
time of publication. Nothing in this article constitutes legal advice. Readers
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