Does Medicare Discourage Treatment for Seniors?

Medicare is a system that is supposed to help seniors deal with medical issues by providing coverage for healthcare costs.  As an individual works month after month and year after year, they pay into the Medicare system and the payments are taken out of each of their paychecks.  The idea is that when they are at the point of retirement, the coverage that they have been paying for all those years that they worked will be there to take care of their health needs.

In theory, this works well, and until recently, Medicare has taken care of millions of seniors.  Currently, there are about 44 million people enrolled in Medicare.  Most of them have the coverage they need, however, during the past decade or so, Medicare has run into various financial issues, creating a situation in which seniors must pay for some of their coverage. 

In addition, though the Medicare system has been overhauled to work better with regard to claims and paperwork, it become more sluggish regarding approvals and claim processing, and it has made it difficult for seniors to get good care and for physicians to give good care.  The main reason for this is that many physicians have to wait extremely long periods of time to get paid by Medicare for the patients that they treat. 

In fact, some physicians have had to stop treating patients covered only by Medicare or they have at least had to stop taking any new patients covered by Medicare.  It is simply too long to wait for payment, and many physicians are experiencing financial trouble as a result.

One such provider is an ophthalmologist in Santa Cruz, California.  Dr. Joshua Babad treats many patients covered by Medicare.  He cares for his patients and knows they need his help.  After all, Santa Cruz is not a large town, and even in large towns, there are not a lot of providers – especially eye doctors – who accept Medicare. 

Dr. Babad has tried to do his best for his patients, and in doing so, has ended up over $50,000 in debt.  He has had to use retirement money to pay expenses while waiting for Medicare to pay him for legitimate services rendered.  In addition, his wife has a brain tumor, so he is struggling with serious family medical and financial issues on top of his long wait for payment.  He wonders if Medicare is trying to discourage doctors from treating the elderly or disabled who depend on Medicare for their medical needs.

Dr. Babad has practiced in the same location for over 30 years.  He has contacted Medicare, as well as his state representatives to try to deal with the situation.  He has stated that if he had to depend on only Medicare, he would have gone bankrupt a long time ago.  There are other providers in the general area who are experiencing similar issues with Medicare.  Medicare’s response to recent contact is that they have communicated with Dr. Babad and his situation will be corrected soon.

In the meantime, many seniors and their providers continue to struggle with delays and hope that they can continue working together toward good health care while Medicare gets its act together.

Filed under: General-Medicare

Tags: General-Medicare, health care, medicare claims, medicare coverage, Medicare Payments, medicare provider, seniors