Cancer clinics are turning away thousands of Medicare patients. Blame the sequester.

[j-mac]

Cancer clinics across the country have begun turning away thousands of Medicare patients, blaming the sequester budget cuts.Oncologists say the reduced funding, which took effect for Medicare on April 1, makes it impossible to administer expensive chemotherapy drugs while staying afloat financially.
Patients at these clinics would need to seek treatment elsewhere, such as at hospitals that might not have the capacity to accommodate them.
“If we treated the patients receiving the most expensive drugs, we’d be out of business in six months to a year,” said Jeff Vacirca, chief executive of North Shore Hematology Oncology Associates in New York. “The drugs we’re going to lose money on we’re not going to administer right now.”
After an emergency meeting Tuesday, Vacirca’s clinics decided that they would no longer see one-third of their 16,000 Medicare patients.
“A lot of us are in disbelief that this is happening,” he said. “It’s a choice between seeing these patients and staying in business.”
Some who have been pushing the federal government to spend less on health care say this is not the right approach.
“I don’t think there was an intention to disrupt care or move it into a more expensive setting,” said Cathy Schoen, senior vice president of the Commonwealth Fund, which recently released a plan for cutting $2 trillion in health spending. “If that’s the case, we’re being penny-wise and a pound-foolish with these cuts.”

Cancer clinics are turning away thousands of Medicare patients. Blame the sequester.

Great....Now we see the propensity of our politicians to make things as painful on us as they can, while they go on vacation, and live it up like elites....:doh

This is just criminal.

 

[rocket88]

Re: Cancer clinics are turning away thousands of Medicare patients. Blame the sequest

Great....Now we see the propensity of our politicians to make things as painful on us as they can, while they go on vacation, and live it up like elites....:doh

This is just criminal.

The first thing that should have been cut is Congressional salaries. Suddenly there'd be a bipartisan solution.

 

[OscarB63]

Re: Cancer clinics are turning away thousands of Medicare patients. Blame the sequest

Great....Now we see the propensity of our politicians to make things as painful on us as they can, while they go on vacation, and live it up like elites....:doh

This is just criminal.

the only problem is.... there were no cuts to medicaid/medicare due to the sequester. These clinics are using "sequester" as a scapegoat

my bad. medicaid is exempt from sequester cuts. medicare cuts are limited to 2%.

 

[Carleen]

Re: Cancer clinics are turning away thousands of Medicare patients. Blame the sequest

Great....Now we see the propensity of our politicians to make things as painful on us as they can, while they go on vacation, and live it up like elites....:doh

This is just criminal.

And some repubs are taking a victory lap on the sequester, Boehner being one of them.

 

[j-mac]

Re: Cancer clinics are turning away thousands of Medicare patients. Blame the sequest

And some repubs are taking a victory lap on the sequester, Boehner being one of them.

And demo's like Obama, or Reid who could step in and shift something like this elsewhere so that it didn't target grandma's chemo treatments, are using it as a hammer to demonize the repubs, and cow the people...Ain't it great?

 

[OscarB63]

Re: Cancer clinics are turning away thousands of Medicare patients. Blame the sequest

if these clinics are operating at a level where a 2% cut in medicare payments is going to force them out of business, they have some serious issues.

 

[MaggieD]

Re: Cancer clinics are turning away thousands of Medicare patients. Blame the sequest

And some repubs are taking a victory lap on the sequester, Boehner being one of them.

It was Obama's plan. Jesus.

Sperling finally wilted under the pressure of tough questioning to admit that “yes, in fact, the sequestration was President Obama’s plan.”

Sperling is the President's Chief Economic Advisor.

White House Admits (Third Time) President Obama Fibbed On Sequester - Forbes

 

[ttwtt78640]

Re: Cancer clinics are turning away thousands of Medicare patients. Blame the sequest

if these clinics are operating at a level where a 2% cut in medicare payments is going to force them out of business, they have some serious issues.

Wrong. There is no (current) law that states that a clinic must provide service/good X at a loss. This (as far as I know) is limitted to ER care. I believe that these clinics are recommending that action - telling their Medacre patients to go to an ER (hospital). Note that grocery stores are not "mandated" to give away free food they are offered SNAP payments instead. Imagine if a grocery store was told to accept an X% loss on all SNAP purchases - would they simply say OK or perhaps simply deny accepting SNAP as form of payment?

 

[OscarB63]

Re: Cancer clinics are turning away thousands of Medicare patients. Blame the sequest

Wrong. There is no (current) law that states that a clinic must provide service/good X at a loss. This (as far as I know) is limitted to ER care. I believe that these clinics are recommending that action - telling their Medacre patients to go to an ER (hospital). Note that grocery stores are not "mandated" to give away free food they are offered SNAP payments instead. Imagine if a grocery store was told to accept an X% loss on all SNAP purchases - would they simply say OK or perhaps simply deny accepting SNAP as form of payment?

or would they simply raise their prices across the board to cover it? unless the vast majority of their patients are on medicare, a 2% cut in medicare payment could be recouped by raising rates by less than 1%.

 

[ttwtt78640]

Re: Cancer clinics are turning away thousands of Medicare patients. Blame the sequest

or would they simply raise their prices across the board to cover it? unless the vast majority of their patients are on medicare, a 2% cut in medicare payment could be recouped by raising rates by less than 1%.

Read the OP supporting article. It stated that they get a 6% "overhead" allowance in excess of the basic drug cost, meaning that their actual loss is then 33% of their overhead (probably well in excess of any "profit" margin), as a result of the 2% reduction in the gross treatment cost since the drug cost is still a fixed amount (94%?). The article also stated that about 1/3 of their patients were Medicare funded. You also assume that they may simply "raise rates" on "others", which is unlikely since they have both competition and limits on what other insurance providers will pay. Perhaps they can survey their patient's incomes and only charge "the rich" more - the classic Obama way to be "fair".

 

[Taylor]

Re: Cancer clinics are turning away thousands of Medicare patients. Blame the sequest

or would they simply raise their prices across the board to cover it?

What would that do? When the provider agrees to accept something like Blue Cross Blue Shield, they agree to a fee schedule that dictates the maximum amount they'll be reimbursed. If it's $100 for an exam, they can bill for $200, or $2000, but they'll only get the $100 they agreed to.

 

[j-mac]

Re: Cancer clinics are turning away thousands of Medicare patients. Blame the sequest

What would that do? When the provider agrees to accept something like Blue Cross Blue Shield, they agree to a fee schedule that dictates the maximum amount they'll be reimbursed. If it's $100 for an exam, they can bill for $200, or $2000, but they'll only get the $100 they agreed to.

Yep, and that is why you sign that wonderful disclaimer upon seeing the doc, that states that YOU are responsible for that which is not covered, or paid by insurance carriers....Medicare, and people on fixed incomes don't have that...

 

[Carleen]

Re: Cancer clinics are turning away thousands of Medicare patients. Blame the sequest

It was Obama's plan. Jesus.



Sperling is the President's Chief Economic Advisor.

White House Admits (Third Time) President Obama Fibbed On Sequester - Forbes

Two wrongs do not make it right. Not a time for gloating IMO

 

[j-mac]

Re: Cancer clinics are turning away thousands of Medicare patients. Blame the sequest

Two wrongs do not make it right. Not a time for gloating IMO

:lamo Of course not....NO criticizing, NO mocking, NO bad reporting on Obama (even if accurate), nothing negative what so ever should ever be directed at "the One"....

 

[Carleen]

Re: Cancer clinics are turning away thousands of Medicare patients. Blame the sequest

:lamo Of course not....NO criticizing, NO mocking, NO bad reporting on Obama (even if accurate), nothing negative what so ever should ever be directed at "the One"....

I just critized him on the sequester. I guess you missed it. The squester was WRONG thus the two wrongs, but I still think gloating is inappropriate by Boehner and others.

 

[ttwtt78640]

Re: Cancer clinics are turning away thousands of Medicare patients. Blame the sequest

Two wrongs do not make it right. Not a time for gloating IMO

Obama wanted it, got it passed in congress and signed it into law. Sequestration was/is Obama's puppy all the way.

 

[CanadaJohn]

Re: Cancer clinics are turning away thousands of Medicare patients. Blame the sequest

Great....Now we see the propensity of our politicians to make things as painful on us as they can, while they go on vacation, and live it up like elites....:doh

This is just criminal.

I guess the $500 billion syphoned out of Medicare to fund Obamacare had nothing to do with the number of doctors refusing to take Medicare patients? I guess all those people who warned that reducing the amount of money that Medicare paid for services would cause more and more doctors to stop taking Medicare patients were just blowing smoke, right?

Wonderful to have the sequester to blame for Obama administration incompetence. No help for cancer patients - sequester. Job growth pathetic in March - sequester. Obama missed 20 out of 22 jumpshots - sequester.

No need to look behind the curtain folks, nothing to see there.

 

[OscarB63]

Re: Cancer clinics are turning away thousands of Medicare patients. Blame the sequest

I guess the $500 billion syphoned out of Medicare to fund Obamacare had nothing to do with the number of doctors refusing to take Medicare patients? I guess all those people who warned that reducing the amount of money that Medicare paid for services would cause more and more doctors to stop taking Medicare patients were just blowing smoke, right?

Wonderful to have the sequester to blame for Obama administration incompetence. No help for cancer patients - sequester. Job growth pathetic in March - sequester. Obama missed 20 out of 22 jumpshots - sequester.

No need to look behind the curtain folks, nothing to see there.

actually it was closer to $700 billion

funny how a $700 billion reduction had no effect, but a 2% cut due to sequestration is devestating

 

[polgara]

Re: Cancer clinics are turning away thousands of Medicare patients. Blame the sequest

I guess the $500 billion syphoned out of Medicare to fund Obamacare had nothing to do with the number of doctors refusing to take Medicare patients? I guess all those people who warned that reducing the amount of money that Medicare paid for services would cause more and more doctors to stop taking Medicare patients were just blowing smoke, right?

Wonderful to have the sequester to blame for Obama administration incompetence. No help for cancer patients - sequester. Job growth pathetic in March - sequester. Obama missed 20 out of 22 jumpshots - sequester.

No need to look behind the curtain folks, nothing to see there.

Good afternoon, CJ. :2wave:

Looking at the job numbers this morning was disheartening. I guess the man behind the curtain has already taken off in the hot-air balloon---just like in the Wizard of Oz, and we are now on our own! Maybe if the folks in DC worked a little harder on behalf of the people who elected them, instead of what we are seeing?...HA!... I might as well make a wish on a star...I'll get the same results.....

 

[OscarB63]

Re: Cancer clinics are turning away thousands of Medicare patients. Blame the sequest

Good afternoon, CJ. :2wave:

Looking at the job numbers this morning was disheartening. I guess the man behind the curtain has already taken off in the hot-air balloon---just like in the Wizard of Oz, and we are now on our own! Maybe if the folks in DC worked a little harder on behalf of the people who elected them, instead of what we are seeing?...HA!... I might as well make a wish on a star...I'll get the same results.....

and somehow...it is still "ALL BUSH'S FAULT" :lamo

 

[justabubba]

Re: Cancer clinics are turning away thousands of Medicare patients. Blame the sequest

Obama wanted it, got it passed in congress and signed it into law. Sequestration was/is Obama's puppy all the way.

it would be more fair to say Obama over-estimated the congress
sequestration was put forth as a proposal that would be so abhorrent the congress would never allow it to occur
but they did
and now medicare is faced with a shortfall of funds to provide the care our citizens require
so, congress did not pass a budget and you lay the blame on Obama. weird

 

[justabubba]

Re: Cancer clinics are turning away thousands of Medicare patients. Blame the sequest

and somehow...it is still "ALL BUSH'S FAULT" :lamo

until the economic morass dicknbush left us with is overcome, you would be right

 

[CanadaJohn]

Re: Cancer clinics are turning away thousands of Medicare patients. Blame the sequest

Good afternoon, CJ. :2wave:

Looking at the job numbers this morning was disheartening. I guess the man behind the curtain has already taken off in the hot-air balloon---just like in the Wizard of Oz, and we are now on our own! Maybe if the folks in DC worked a little harder on behalf of the people who elected them, instead of what we are seeing?...HA!... I might as well make a wish on a star...I'll get the same results.....

Good afternoon to you too Lady P. Take heart, the American economy is so strong that even the weight of a dolt in the White House can't keep it down forever. Save your money and bide your time and just try to ride it out.

 

[ttwtt78640]

Re: Cancer clinics are turning away thousands of Medicare patients. Blame the sequest

it would be more fair to say Obama over-estimated the congress
sequestration was put forth as a proposal that would be so abhorrent the congress would never allow it to occur
but they did
and now medicare is faced with a shortfall of funds to provide the care our citizens require
so, congress did not pass a budget and you lay the blame on Obama. weird

:lol: :doh Have you seen the Obama "budgets"? Be glad that congress did not pass any of them. :roll:

 

[CanadaJohn]

Re: Cancer clinics are turning away thousands of Medicare patients. Blame the sequest

and somehow...it is still "ALL BUSH'S FAULT" :lamo

Of course you're aware that GW had a secret plan to bury the economy in Obama's second term with a sequestration bomb.