It was a moment that might have seen Captain Renault striding out of the Capital Building saying. “I am shocked, shocked to discover legislating going on here,” Somehow, Democrats and Republicans came together to pass a permanent solution to the the problem of Medicare reimbursement for physicians. For almost two decades now, Congress has had to pass a law at the 11th Hour to keep Medicare payments to doctors from falling by some enormous amount. Now this charade is over. Under the new law, Medicare is switching from doctors for the quantity or work they produce to the quality of the work. This is scheduled to start in 2020. I say scheduled to start because I don’t think it ever will. I cannot see physicians agreeing to having the Feds overseeing their work. Many doctors have gotten wealthy by doing what Medicare will pay for, rather than what is medically indicated. Check out this egregious example.
This is a pretty sweet deal and I do not expect doctors to give it up. I predict that when the time comes to switch how Medicare pays, you will hearing howling protests from the American Medical Association about how this will drive all the doctors out of business. Eventually, Congress will drop this part of the law. Too bad, because this is precisely the sort of change needed to preserve Medicare. But, any good doctor will be able to declare this change in the law DOA.
