Article --> Looming Medicare pay cut forces tough decisions on participation

[Guest guest]

Article on medicare pay cuts and physician decisions to drop out.

Locke, MD

=======================

http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2007/12/24/gvl11224.htm

Looming Medicare pay cut forces tough decisions on participation

Some physicians may be attracted by the higher reimbursement they can get under a nonparticipation arrangement, but patient collections may be an issue.

By Glendinning, AMNews staff. Dec. 24/31, 2007.

Washington -- With congressional debate on an upcoming 10.1% Medicare cut to physicians stretching into the final weeks of the year, physicians' decisions on whether to participate in the program in 2008 took on added degrees of importance and complexity.

The year-end deadline for physicians to change their participation status is important because it likely will determine how doctors will be able to bill the program and receive payment for all of 2008. If physicians do not inform their Medicare carriers in writing of their intent to change their status before Jan. 1, they will be locked into their current choices for the next 12 months -- possibly under a newly reduced fee schedule.

snip-snip