House Members Mull Bills to Cut Red Tape and Improve Docs’ Medicare Pay
A House hearing on ways to increase payments and cut red tape for physicians who treat Medicare patients also included a discussion over whether Republicans wanted to cut Medicare benefits for seniors. “Just yesterday, in a speech on the House floor nominating [Rep.] Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) as their candidate for Speaker, Republicans expressed concern with […]
MedPAC Recommends Cutting Admin Fees Paid to Docs Under Part B Program
Drug payments under Medicare Part B could be cut by reducing the administrative fees doctors get for dispensing medications in their office, the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) said Thursday in its June report to Congress. “Our work on Medicare spending for Part B drugs is driven largely by the growth in spending between 2009 […]
Want to Fix Medicare Pay for Primary Care Docs? How About Two Fee Schedules?
How can Medicare payments to primary care doctors be fixed? Hoangmai Pham, MD, MPH, former official at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) during the Obama administration, has a few ideas. How about two separate fee schedules? “Rather than insisting that CMS govern fees for all physician services in one fee schedule, set […]
Report: Medicare Advantage Plans Wrongly Deny Care, Physician Payments
Medicare Advantage plans often denied medically necessary care to beneficiaries and payments to doctors that met Medicare coverage rules, according to a new report from the HHS Office of the Inspector General (OIG). OIG found that 13% of prior authorization requests that were denied met Medicare coverage rules, as did 18% of physician payment requests […]