Mayo Clinic in Arizona to Stop Treating Some Medicare Patients

[thundley4]

Synicus Maximus (269 posts)           Fri Jan-01-10 12:04 PM
Original message
Mayo Clinic in Arizona to Stop Treating Some Medicare Patients
Source: Bloomberg

Dec. 31 (Bloomberg) -- The Mayo Clinic, praised by President Barack Obama as a national model for efficient health care, will stop accepting Medicare patients as of tomorrow at one of its primary-care clinics in Arizona, saying the U.S. government pays too little.

More than 3,000 patients eligible for Medicare, the government’s largest health-insurance program, will be forced to pay cash if they want to continue seeing their doctors at a Mayo family clinic in Glendale, northwest of Phoenix, said Michael Yardley, a Mayo spokesman. The decision, which Yardley called a two-year pilot project, won’t affect other Mayo facilities in Arizona, Florida and Minnesota.

Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aHo...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4206793

Wait a minute. Didn't Lord Zero tout the Mayo Clinic as a pinnacle of success for treating poor people under Medicare?

begin_within   (1000+ posts)           Fri Jan-01-10 12:05 PM
Response to Original message
1. What a good citizen the clinic is!

Donnachaidh   (1000+ posts)           Fri Jan-01-10 12:07 PM
Response to Original message
2. hope every single one of those patients call McCain
   
And make his life miserable.

Why? The Mayo Clinic is based in Minnesota .

area51   (1000+ posts)             Fri Jan-01-10 12:09 PM
Response to Original message
3. This is awful,
   
but if our government can fight two wars of choice, they can afford to raise Medicare reimbursement rates. The most valuable resource in the U.S. is its citizens, and it's ******* time that this govt. started acting like it.

You haven't read the HCR bills , have you?  They call for DEcreasing Medicare payments as a way to meet their budget projections.

Dappleganger   (1000+ posts)           Fri Jan-01-10 12:12 PM
Response to Reply #3
5. +1
   
Reimbursement rates and also how soon the hospital gets paid. Their turnaround is extremely slow.

That is government bureaucracy for you. Do you still want the government in charge of all medical and insurance?

Dappleganger   (1000+ posts)           Fri Jan-01-10 12:10 PM
Response to Original message
4. Mayo Jax has done this with other insurance companies before.
   
I know they did it with BCBS and made me pretty nervous, but they only did it for a short while and were able to negotiate and renew them again. Problem is that Medicare pays so little and so late that it puts the hospital in a financial bind. As good as Medicare is for what it's for it really does need an overhaul in many different areas.

panader0   (1000+ posts)           Fri Jan-01-10 12:27 PM
Response to Original message
6. The Mayo Clinic in Phoenix
   
saved a friends life this past year. He was on Medicare and had severe oral cancer. They had to make him a new tongue. I'm glad for him that he got it done when he did, but sad for those who will be denied treatment at such a good hospital. Probably some of the rich folks complained about the poor being treated at "their" hospital.

JDPriestly   (1000+ posts)             Fri Jan-01-10 12:47 PM
Response to Original message
7. Just wait. The only cost-cuts the proposed Senate version
   
of the health care "reform" bill makes are to -- you guessed it -- Medicare.

Obama has some 'splainin' to do.

Bite your tongue.  

That's the complete thread so far.  Only the last DUmmie seems to get the reality of HCR as proposed by the DimRats.

[Tucker]

area51  Donating Member  (1000+ posts)  Journal  Click to send private message to this author  Click to view this author's profile  Click to add this author to your buddy list  Click to add this author to your Ignore list      Fri Jan-01-10 12:09 PM
Response to Original message
3. This is awful,
   
but if our government can fight two wars of choice, they can afford to raise Medicare reimbursement rates. The most valuable resource in the U.S. is its productive citizens, and it's ******* time that this govt. started acting like it.

Fixt.

[Carl]

Yet their plan was Medicare for all.

Shows one just how stupid they really are.

Btw I do know that every DUmmies health care plan is "free for me and screw thee" but still fun to see them wallow in reality for a while.

[JohnnyReb]

The Obamacare is duh kicker.....and the DUmmies are the kickee....

[zeitgeist]

The flames are leaping up  ...  Huge Moron shows how he got his name.
 

HughMoran  (1000+ posts)        Fri Jan-01-10 01:40 PM
Response to Original message
11. Put them out of business
 Fuxxking as$$ holes.
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SnakeEyes (108 posts)      Fri Jan-01-10 02:03 PM
Response to Reply #11
12. Yeah...
 That damn Mayo Clinic...
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 GoldenOldie (1000+ posts)       Fri Jan-01-10 02:23 PM
Response to Reply #12
16. Nothing New!
 Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, has been doing this for years. My younger sister was diagnosed with PAN a very rare vascular disease by Mayo in Minn and was being treated their. She had excellent insurance for 3-years after her husbands death. When she relocated to Arizona, she was followed up by Mayo, Scottsdale in co-ordination with Minn for 2-years. Her husbands insurance ran out and she then tried to use her Tucson school employees insurance and Mayo Scottsdale denied her? My spouse and I both have excellent federal insurance and it was accepted by Mayo for a few years and then when we went on Medicare as primary, Mayo denied us? 
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 HughMoran  (1000+ posts)        Fri Jan-01-10 02:57 PM
Response to Reply #12
24. Elitists?
 Is that how medicine should be delivered?
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 freddie mertz (1000+ posts)      Fri Jan-01-10 02:16 PM
Response to Reply #11
14. This may be just the beginning, if current HCR legislation passes.
 
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 JonQ (1000+ posts)      Fri Jan-01-10 02:43 PM
Response to Reply #11
21. Yeah, what have those assholes ever done for the world. 
 
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 HughMoran  (1000+ posts)        Fri Jan-01-10 02:56 PM
Response to Reply #21
23. If they are only for those with money?
 What good are they?
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JonQ (1000+ posts)      Fri Jan-01-10 03:27 PM
Response to Reply #23
32. Well those with money get treated
 which means then that there are fewer people who need treatment right? 
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HughMoran  (1000+ posts)        Fri Jan-01-10 03:28 PM
Response to Reply #32
33. So glad you're happy that wealthy people get treatment
 What about those who cannot afford to pay out of pocket?
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 JonQ (1000+ posts)      Fri Jan-01-10 03:38 PM
Response to Reply #33
36. Perhaps they could take advantage
 of some government run healthcare? Oh right, they are cutting back so that doesn't work so well anymore.

Your "ban all healthcare for everyone if even a single person can't afford it" strategy is perplexing.

How does shutting down a hospital because it doesn't cover one segment of society make us all better off? Why not build another hospital to cover the remainder? 
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 HughMoran  (1000+ posts)        Fri Jan-01-10 03:42 PM
Response to Reply #36
41. The point is to pressure them to be reasonable
 Are you really concerned with hospital profits over the lives of people?

JonQ (1000+ posts)      Fri Jan-01-10 04:01 PM
Response to Reply #47
49. Reading is your friend
 From the article:

The Mayo organization had 3,700 staff physicians and scientists and treated 526,000 patients in 2008. It lost $840 million last year on Medicare, the government’s health program for the disabled and those 65 and older, Mayo spokeswoman Lynn Closway said.

Mayo’s hospital and four clinics in Arizona, including the Glendale facility, lost $120 million on Medicare patients last year, Yardley said. The program’s payments cover about 50 percent of the cost of treating elderly primary-care patients at the Glendale clinic, he said.

. . . .
Nationwide, doctors made about 20 percent less for treating Medicare patients than they did caring for privately insured patients in 2007, a payment gap that has remained stable during the last decade, according to a March report by the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, a panel that advises Congress on Medicare issues.
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 HughMoran  (1000+ posts)        Fri Jan-01-10 04:29 PM
Response to Reply #43
53. guess you were against medicare expansion then
 Where do you think Medicare money comes from anyway? Why justify the exploding medical costs that exist now? Are you saying that ins. Is bad and hospitals are good? I think both share responsibility in this. Local hospital is building new buildings at a break-neck pace. Where are they getting the extra tens of millions to build these? So, let's all share the burden! Remember that you and I pay for Medicare but that hospitals and insurane are making millions - don't ask me to sympathize with those who hold the wealth.

Guess I will have to drop this one at the Dump from time to time.

[Oceander]

It's so refreshing to see such unambivalent pleasure in utterly failing to understand basic Econ 101.

[SVPete]

1. What a good citizen the clinic is!

So, the mayo Clinic should have showed good citizenship by ... treating Medicare patients at a loss until they went under? Makes sense to me!  

[Oceander]

So, the mayo Clinic should have showed good citizenship by ... treating Medicare patients at a loss until they went under? Makes sense to me! 

Of course!  The only people who are allowed to live off of the fat of the land are liberals - witness Nancy Antsy-Pantsy Pelosi's millionaire's vacation in Hawaii.

[thundley4]

We obviously need a system like the NIH in England.  The medical staff is paid by the government, and is unionized.  (at least it sounds like it from what I've read)

Anyway, that is the sure way to correct what is wrong with the profiteering taking place in our health care system.  





















































  Psych  

[Oceander]

We obviously need a system like the NIH in England.  The medical staff is paid by the government, and is unionized.  (at least it sounds like it from what I've read)

Anyway, that is the sure way to correct what is wrong with the profiteering taking place in our health care system. 





















































  Psych 

Yup, and a committee like the UK's NICE to prevent people from trying to cheat the system and mug up too many services for themselves instead of sharing with everyone else.

[The Village Idiot]

It's so refreshing to see such unambivalent pleasure in utterly failing to understand basic Econ 101.

JonQ (1000+ posts)      Fri Jan-01-10 02:43 PM
Response to Reply #11
21. Yeah, what have those assholes ever done for the world. 

Yes, what does the Mayo Clinic have to show for itself?? Besides all those diseases and medical problems they have been trying to fix for decades and all those people they have helped.

[Doc Savage]

Where I work, out patient base is about 30-35% medicare.  The president of the company has already said, if the current health care legislation passes he is going to stop taking care of medicare patients.  He is not going to do business for less than cost. 

What this means to everyone?  We take care of people at home for about 20% of the cost of a inpatient day in this hospital.  Not taking these patients means they will have to be treated inpatient.  See what happens to medicare costs when companies like the one I work at thruout the country do the same thing. 

[Lacarnut]

Where I work, out patient base is about 30-35% medicare.  The president of the company has already said, if the current health care legislation passes he is going to stop taking care of medicare patients.  He is not going to do business for less than cost. 

What this means to everyone?  We take care of people at home for about 20% of the cost of a inpatient day in this hospital.  Not taking these patients means they will have to be treated inpatient.  See what happens to medicare costs when companies like the one I work at thruout the country do the same thing. 

I am afraid that will happen to me. My PPO medicare plan paid out around $200 on a bill over $1k on tests and 2 office visits. If this health care bill passes, I might be heading south of the border. I won't live in a country where some bureaucrat decides my health care.

[zeitgeist]

Yes, what does the Mayo Clinic have to show for itself?? Besides all those diseases and medical problems they have been trying to fix for decades and all those people they have helped.

And the dump thread is slowly being moved to the dust bin of history. (now moved to a sub board for easy burial)

26. This is an easy Congressional fix -
 every provider who accepts private insurance must also take Medicare and Medicaid. End of story. 
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 scarface2004 (1000+ posts)      Fri Jan-01-10 03:07 PM
Response to Original message
28. feds should seize this friking clinic
 and force the doctors to perform services at the point of a gun....

This reminds me I need to find my copy of Dr Zhivago

[The Village Idiot]

scarface2004 (1000+ posts)      Fri Jan-01-10 03:07 PM
Response to Original message
28. feds should seize this friking clinic
 and force the doctors to perform services at the point of a gun....

And DUmmies can be forced to scrub bedpans for free at the point of a gun too