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Information for Medicare/Tricare patients Source: American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons Research and Health Policy Departments, 2007. Although we truly appreciate the opportunity to care for our Medicare and Tricare patients, budgetary realities on a Federal level make continuing to do so an economic challenge. In December '07, Congress passed a stopgap funding measure to avoid a 10% cut to physicians for Medicare/Tricare patients for the first six months of '08, but a more permanent solution is needed. Medicare payments are currently regulated by a Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) conversion factor, which is complicated to explain, but needs to be changed. This formula, which inappropriately ties total payments to physicians to the gross domestic product of our country, makes changes in reimbursement that have no relationship to the needs of the patients being served. We need your help on this issue. Unless a change is made to this SGR and permanent funding for Medicare is passed, we will face this issue every year as these cuts, which are passed on to future legislative sessions, are averted permanently. To keep it in perspective, keep in mind that we have discussed with --our employees --our landlord --our malpractice carrier and --the companies who sell us our supplies about giving us a discount (like the 10% discount that has been postponed) if these Medicare changes go through. In fact, none of these people want a cut. Not surprisingly, they all want a raise.
So, as you can see, a cut in Medicare with increasing cost is going to potentially preclude our group from taking Medicare starting in the latter half of 2008 unless something is changed.
It is up to you to write and call your congressional representatives and senators because we guarantee we have done our best so far to see Medicare patients, but will no longer be able to do so if these cuts take place, plain and simple.
Sincerely,
Mark Wolgin, MD (and the doctors of Orthopaedic Associates) You can contact your Federal Representatives and Senators toll free by using the AMA Grassroots Hotline at 1-800-833-6354 and entering your zip code and you will be connected to the appropriate office. Or, the contact information is also listed below for patients in the area of our practice.
Contact Information:
Senator Saxby Chambliss (R) 416 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510
Phone: 202-224-3521
Fax: 202-224-0103 100 Galleria Parkway, Suite 1340
Atlanta, GA 30339
Phone: 770-763-9090
Fax: 770-226-8633
Senator Johnny Isakson (R)
120 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510
Phone: 202-224-3643
Fax: 202-228-0724 3625 Cumberland Boulevard
Suite 970
Atlanta, GA 30339
Phone: 770-661-0999
Fax: 770-661-0768
Congressman Sanford Bishop, Jr. (D)
2nd District 2429 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515
Phone: 202-225-3631
Fax: 202-225-2203 235 Roosevelt Avenue
Albany Towers, Suite 114
Albany, GA 31701
Phone: 912-439-8067
Fax: 912-436-2099 And, for the record, on a recent patient care issue, I was bothered by the way non-emergency transport services would leave a Medicaid patient from a nursing home in our office. Some providers would bring in an older patient on a stretcher, leave them on an exam table (which has no guardrails) and leave. The situation was absurd, since we have no way, aside from the stretcher which they just took away, of even getting that patient to Xray or the cast room. I wrote a series of letters to the GA Dept. of Community Health, with carbon copies to the Governor, and finally got a response: |
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