[AFP/David Furst]


Song in my head:
If you start me up
If you start me up... I'll never stop.
Rolling Stones


Medicareless

Monthly Medicare premiums are set to rise again, in 2007, according to a recent New York Times article. Since I have been on Medicare the state of Oregon has paid the following monthly premium payments for Medicare. Oregon state pays my monthly premium, but this is not true for all states.

• 2004 $66.60
• 2005 $78.20
• 2006 $88.50
  
• 2007 $98.40 (proposed)
  

This does not include the premium most Medicare recipients pay for the drug prescription plan.

Medicare payments to doctors will be cut 5.1% making it more difficult to find doctors that will take Medicare patients.

The Bush administration on Tuesday proposed a cut of 5.1 percent across the board in Medicare payments for services provided by doctors to elderly and disabled patients in 2007.

It said the cut was required because spending on doctors’ services was increasing faster than expected, and faster than the annual goals set by a statutory formula.

The increase directly affects beneficiaries because their premiums are set each year to cover about 25 percent of projected spending under Part B of Medicare, which pays for doctors’ services and other outpatient care.

Dr. Mark B. McClellan, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said Tuesday that the premium would probably rise to $98.40 next year, up $9.90 or 11 percent over this year’s premium. The figures do not include separate premiums paid by many beneficiaries for prescription drug coverage.

“Our current system of paying for physician services is simply not sustainable, from the point of view of taxpayers or Medicare beneficiaries,’’ Dr. McClellan said.

The White House, Congress and doctors have been talking for more than a year about ways to link Medicare payments to the quality of care doctors provide. To date, they have not offered any specific proposals and are still seeking ways to measure the quality of care, particularly for medical specialists.

More than 42 million people are insured by Medicare. Officials estimate that the program will pay $61.5 billion to 875,000 doctors and other health care professionals next year.

Such spending has increased sharply in recent years, Dr. McClellan said, because of “increases in the number and complexity of services furnished to Medicare beneficiaries, including more frequent and intensive office visits, and rapid growth in the use of imaging techniques, laboratory services and physician-administered drugs.’’

Budget estimates are based on the assumption that doctors’ fees under Medicare will be cut in 2007 and later years, as required under the statutory formula. Congress often steps in to block or moderate such cuts, but it normally looks for some way to offset the cost of its action, often by trimming payments to other health care providers.

Dr. McClellan said it would cost the government $13 billion over five years if it blocked the cut scheduled for 2007, without giving doctors any allowance for inflation. The costs would ripple through later years because future updates would be computed from a higher starting point.
NYT article