RFK Jr. Weighs Major Changes to how Medicare pays Physicians

https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2024/11/21/rfk-physician-payments/

Kennedy and advisers say the system drives doctors to perform costly surgeries rather than combating chronic disease.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his advisers are considering an overhaul of Medicare’s decades-old payment formula, a bid to shift the health system’s incentives toward primary care and prevention, said four people who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private deliberations.

The coding system tends to reward health-care providers for surgeries and other costly procedures. It has been accused of steering physicians to become specialists because they will be paid more, while financial incentives are different in other countries, where more physicians go into primary careand health outcomes are better.[1]

Medicare’s billing codes are shaped by the American Medical Association

The AMA also collects millions of dollars in revenue from its work to develop and recommend billing codes, with the lobbying group conducting trainings, selling books and charging royalties.

This is an OUTRAGE!
Think of all the world tourist attractions and US ski resorts & spas that will be negatively effected by such cuts!

[1]https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/interactive/2023/portugal-us-health-systems-life-expectancy/
hm seems like the Captain found the best retirement spot.
“One thing that is clear to me: The countries that do well nearly always have early and sustained commitment to primary care and public health investment in their communities,” said Atul Gawande, a surgeon and public health expert who is working to identify and implement low-cost, high-impact health interventions as the assistant administrator for global health at the U.S. Agency for International Development.

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Hey, he is singing my tune, but to no avail as the USA is adamantly against “doing well” with regard to general well-being anywhere for anyone.

d fb

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Well, caution is advised when blathering about commitment to primary care and prevention (whatever folk think they mean by that) …when there are folk around who’ve been as good a custodian of their body as it’s just about as possible to be, but yet have required not one but TWO costly surgeries that RFK’s changes would affect (which given Medicare’s current funding level are probably just about at break even point anyway)

Just sayin’…Wendy’ll be back soon and probably not in a very good mood.

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General well being for anyone begins with universal heath care. Everyone must have access to at least basic health care.

They keep telling us this would reduce the cost of health care by keeping people healthier.

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Well one problem I see is that a heck of a lot of Americans behave…eat, sit, booze smoke etc…as if they already do have access to universal and free healthcare. Gawd knows how they’d behave if they did.

Or, conversely, how those countries that do provide well for their citizenry would fair their populations started to behave like Americans…which a good many are starting to.

I hear you. Yes, bad living is a concern. Education on ways to improve has to be a plus.

Good prenatal care is an obvious area to address. They tell us many problems can be avoided–especially premature birth–with better prenatal care. We should do better.

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I wonder how many ‘temporarily hidden’ posts ever become revealed again…
Is ‘temporarily’ a valid term here?

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“When Hell freezes over” could apply…

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Depends. When it is first hidden, one gets an e-mail and has 10 minutes to edit the post. Of course, lots of folks won’t get that e-mail until after the 10 minutes have expired.

On the paid side, there is a Community Help category which I can’t find on this side, but I presume is one of those help categories at the very bottom of the middle section. That appears to be the only place to post if one thinks the hiding was in error, but I can’t say that one should be very optimistic about a meaningful response.

When message is flagged, poster get opportunity to edit out the objectionable part (if you can figure it out). When cleaned up, it returns. But sometimes little is left when you do that. So why bother?

I usually don’t edit mine.

Actually, you can edit 10 minutes AFTER the post is hidden, not that you have 10 minutes to edit it. That gives the system time to make sure everything is ready and processed.

And the message mentions the things that might be causing it, such as politics, profanity (including masked profanity) and insulting other members. I just added copyright violation to that since it seems a lot of folks are posting too much from outside sources lately.

The place to ask questions is the New Site Help and Feedback category. In general, though, most of the flags here are profanity/masked profanity and politics and those will continue to be pulled.

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Especially if the same person simply flags it again being either vindictive or juvenile. I am not convinced that anyone at TMF ever reviews them after the second flag.

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Neither do I but let’s try again just for fun since they send a warning email that gives no clue as to what was “offensive”. Maybe a disguised term for posterior that included appropriately placed $$

Eat less junk and get off the couch. Everyone has access to care via Medicaid although some will still fall through the cracks. But something about leading a horse to water and making it drink comes to mind.

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“You can lead a horticulture, but you can’t make her think.”
~ Dorothy Parker

DB2

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Here, I will flag yours and you can flag mine. Let’s see if they ever come back.

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It was not a serious question. Y’all will do whatever you want. Presumably you are not the sole arbitrator for such things.

But the definition of profanity is a slippery one. We’re all adults here.
We’ll report the most offensive stuff.

The automated profanity algorithm is way off base.

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We got an orange one…

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That is not my experience. Most profanity is simply not allowed. As noted before you cannot post words like gl@ssblowing or mention a certain river in Africa.

I think most posts are flagged because a user decided to flag them–usually for politics.

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I do edit them. I do know where I am skating on the thin ice. We all do.

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