Medicare endangers seniors, rations care and punishes the best doctors whose only aim is to give the best care. For the sake of patients and integrity of the profession, doctors should get out of Medicare.
That's the warning from the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons as it declares the 6th annual "Medicare Patient Freedom Day." Medicare begins its 36th year this month.
An AAPS survey of doctors reveals that Medicare rules and government threats to prosecute doctors make it more difficult for seniors to receive appropriate, necessary and timely medical care because doctors are afraid to treat tricky cases or take on new patients. Doctors spend less time practicing medicine and more complying with incomprehensible government regulations -- more than 110,000 pages.
"Spin the wheel in favor of your patient, go to jail or pay tens of thousands of dollars. The people President Clinton calls Medicare cheats are often doctors who give patients the best care. But if a government bureaucrat deems the treatment unnecessary or inappropriate, it's called fraud, and the doctor is pronounced a criminal," said Dr. Orient.
The HHS Inspector General admits that most doctors are honest. But to some prosecutors, there is no thing as a honest mistake. "Intent to defraud no longer matters. This Administration has chosen to cast a web so wide that honest doctors are ensnared. The results are ruined lives, both professionally and financially," said Dr. Orient.
AAPS President, Lawrence Huntoon, a Jamestown, N.Y. neurologist, is one who spun the wheel in favor for his patients and lost. Dr. Huntoon routinely performed two blood vessel examinations to determine stroke risk. If done on two different days, $32.10 would be allowed. If they are done at the same time, however, only $16.05 is allowed. Dr. Huntoon chooses to not make his elderly patients return and paid a steep price.
Medicare sent letters to his patients sternly warning them that their doctor broke the law by charging more than zero for the exams. After more than a year and hundreds of hours of appeals, the decision was
reversed, but only after Dr. Huntoon had been slandered to his patients.
"In the name of cost-cutting, federal bean counters have destroyed the patient-physician trust, and created an atmosphere of fear in which physicians must now practice the art of medicine," said Dr. Orient.
Federal officers raided the home and office of Dr. Danny Westmoreland. They held his 9-year-old son, staff and patients at gunpoint while they seized files. A judge eventually threw out the case, but only after Dr. Westmoreland's reputation, practice and finances was devastated.
Medicare also makes it impossible for doctors to provide free medical care under threat of criminal prosecution. In 1995, AAPS marked the first "Medicare Patient Freedom Day" by treating patients for $1 cash, while refusing to file claims for reimbursement from taxpayers. The government responded by saying it was illegal not to file a claim for payment.
Many doctors have resigned from Medicare. Dr. Nino Carmardese still treats Medicare patients, but at no charge. Neurosurgeon Michael Schlitt has accepted a model ship as payment for back surgery, and performed brain surgery for one dollar. Dr. John Bennett published his "Declaration of Independence from Medicare" stating, "I find that I must choose between the practice of Medicine and the practice of Medicare; I choose the practice of Medicine."
All report enthusiastic patient support. Any financial impact "is more than compensated by the freedom to make the right decision for my patients and the relief of getting the government out of my operating room," said Dr. Schlitt. Other groups are catching on to the Medicare mess. Veterans' groups are waging a full-out battle on Capitol Hill to prevent Congress from rolling VA coverage for seniors into Medicare.
