Medical educators concerned about possible cuts.Changes in Medicare Medicare, national health insurance program in the United States for persons aged 65 and over and the disabled. It was established in 1965 with passage of the Social Security Amendments and is now run by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. reimbursement Reimbursement Payment made to someone for out-of-pocket expenses has incurred. sought by the Prospective Payment Assessment Commission could have a significant impact on the bottom lines of teaching hospitals. Coupled with a recommendation to freeze See abend. freeze - To lock an evolving software distribution or document against changes so it can be released with some hope of stability. Carries the strong implication that the item in question will "unfreeze" at some future date. Medicare payments Noun 1. medicare payment - a check reimbursing an aged person for the expenses of health care medicare check bank check, check, cheque - a written order directing a bank to pay money; "he paid all his bills by check" to hospitals is a proposal to cut funding for medical education by 9 percent and alter the way hospitals are paid for training physicians. Currently, Medicare pays teaching hospitals an average of 7.7 percent more than non-teaching hospitals for each Medicare patient they see to compensate them for the added costs of running training programs. The commission has recommended that this bonus payment be cut to 7 percent, contending that teaching hospitals only cost an average of 4.1 percent more to operate. Last year, Medicare's payments to the nation's teaching hospitals for medical education totaled $6.3 billion. The commission would like to see a separate funding mechanism established to pick up the costs of medical education. They are proposing that all health care payers be required to contribute to medical education through a complex funding formula. All insurers would pick up part of the cost of training physicians. The burden would not be borne by Medicare alone. The commission would also like to see teaching hospitals given a flat amount for their teaching programs, regardless of how many residents they train. This would be a switch from how hospitals are paid for their teaching efforts now. Currently, they receive an average of $70,000 for each resident, and the more doctors the hospitals train, the more money they receive. The commission believes that altering the compensation formula would reduce the number of residents and serve to reduce the expected surplus of physicians. If Congress fails to act on the commission's recommendation, the reimbursement formula for medical education will continue unchanged and hospitals will receive an automatic 2.8 percent increase in Medicare reimbursements, as stipulated under law. --James A. Hawkins is Publisher of Healthcare Briefings, a newsletter available in print and cassette A removable magnetic tape storage module that contains supply and takeup reels (hubs) in the same housing. Most audio tapes and videotapes use cassettes as well as backup tape technologies such as DAT, 8mm and Magstar MP (see below). , as well as via fax, e-mail, and on disk. He can be reached at 800/338-5486. |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion