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A case of Medicare-induced dyspepsia.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
Our real problem with Medicare is that patients are unaware that they are not allowed to pay what they can for medical services ("Physicians Make Final Plea to Fix Fee Schedule," Dec. 1, 2005, p. 7).
The prohibition on balance billing means that Medicare patients are forbidden to purchase services they want from doctors and other providers. I can think of a few things in this country, other than health care for the elderly and the disabled, that are illegal to buy and sell. They include certain drugs, sex, and stolen goods. It is an outrage that medical services from Medicare-participating providers are also on that list.
Patients should be permitted to pay providers who participate in Medicare for the time and services that they want. They are unaware that these doctors would be penalized for spending that time, unless they did it for free. Patients have no recourse except to change to a physician who has opted out of Medicare.
It is not just Medicare patients who are unaware of the prohibition on balance billing. It is employers, who pay double-digit inflation in health care dollars because Medicare costs are shifted to them. Employers have as much interest as do physicians and patients in removing the balance billing prohibition. They have lots of clout in Washington.
The debate over Medicare payment updates and pay for performance is an exercise in absurdity. Physicians' representatives are begging an unresponsive bureaucracy ...
- OIG to target balance billing for medical equipment, supplies.
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...the most is the one on balance billing, said DeCarlo, an...supposition that if Medicare is paying a lot for...OIG, the review of balance billing will seek to determine the extent to which Medicare beneficiaries are subject...
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- Employers to continue push to ban balance billing.
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...Subscribers in the Middle Regulators abhor balance billing because it puts the subscriber in...Statutes thus commonly prohibit balance billing by providers that have a contract...rate it is willing to accept, the balance-billing prohibition, and any other terms...
- California's Physician Groups Applaud Supreme Court's Decision to Declare...
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...Medical Group et al, and declared that balance billing of HMO enrollees who receive emergency...strong message to anyone engaged in balance billing that this sharp practice has been...have long sought a prohibition on balance billing because we believe that patients should...
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...improper certain hospitals' practices of "balance billing" patients enrolled in health-maintenance...method recognized whether it be to allow "balance billing" or not to allow "balance billing." This is the only way in which we can...
