Anyone wondering why HHS might engage in a spy operation to determine if doctors are denying appointments to Medicare and Medicaid recipients should read this fascinating article in the Summer National Affairs by Avik Roy called “Saving Medicare from Itself.” Roy includes a table showing physicians who accept no new patients, by form of insurance. According to the chart, doctors are less likely to take new Medicare patients than privately insured patients, and even less likely to take new Medicaid patients than Medicare ones. He also shows that things are likely to get worse for Medicare patients, as “thanks to last year’s health-care law, Medicare payment rates are set to fall below those of Medicaid in the latter part of this decade, according to Medicare’s chief actuary, Richard Foster.”
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