Comments on Doctor Tarlow on Knees - The Lighter Side: Medicare Dilemma for Orthopedic Surgeons

My primary care doctor said he would take Medicare...

2009-10-19T15:10:00.239-06:00

My primary care doctor said he would take Medicare when I signed on a few years ago. His staff refused to schedule my annual physical shortly after my 65th birthday. They misunderstood. The next one occurred because my Cigna insurance from work was still in effect. Mayo Clinic said that they would not accept any new patients in the primary care, but would not eject anyone already on board. I signed on with them before retirement. Now they are dropping Medicare patients at the end of the year. The 18 month delay in payment reductions matches that timing. And our federal government says that the nearly $500,000,000,000 further cut in medicare funding will not affect delivery of services?

I know of two orthopedic surgeons in Orange County...

2009-07-19T14:10:49.711-06:00

I know of two orthopedic surgeons in Orange County, CA who have dropped Medicare and one is doing total hips for the Medicare payment but for cash. He is said to be the busiest hip replacement surgeon in OC. I'm interested in how many are adopting this approach. I'm a retired general surgeon.

I've just reread my comments and I cannot seem to ...

2008-10-21T20:26:00.000-06:00

I've just reread my comments and I cannot seem to find the word "free". Tony, look at it again.

God Bless you Dr Tarlow and thank you for your pos...

2008-10-21T00:16:00.000-06:00

God Bless you Dr Tarlow and thank you for your post. Now as far as me, I'm just a normal 40 year old American with a lot of concern about my future. It seems to me that I should forget about putting money away towards my retirement to enjoy life but instead for medical expenses or future insurance premiums. Lord knows medicare and social security wont be available for my generation. But as for the free health care system idea from your mom, I personally don't think that's the right plan either. All though it sounds good, its more of a fairy tale, but we have seen what has happened in Europe and Canada. Horrible patient care, poor wages for Doctors, and many many more reasons. I don't know what the answer is, but government needs to come up with some kind of plan "together" and not keep fighting about it and worse wait until it's to late for anything. Again I thank you for choosing to help people and also believe Doctors should have a very big voice in the direction our health care is headed. Sincerely, Tony

I was glad to see that the U.S Senate passed legis...

2008-07-10T11:02:00.000-06:00

I was glad to see that the U.S Senate passed legislation, yesterday July 9th, to keep the Medicare payments to doctors in tact for at least 18 more months.
If it had failed it would have negatively impacted both doctors and patients.
Good for the Oregon Senators, Wyden and Smith for voting the right way.
Good for you, too, for speaking out on this issue.

I'm one of the "Greatest Generation" talked about ...

2008-06-18T15:02:00.000-06:00

I'm one of the "Greatest Generation" talked about in Dr. Tarlow's comments. I've been involved in many different health care plans & it seems that the situation is worsening. The poor have nothing; those w/ insurance keep getting cut back & health care professionals are being compromised. People have earned Medicare through Social Security w/ the idea they'd be well cared for as they aged. I've learned that Congress wants to cut back medicare payments to doctors who have spent so much time to take care of citizens of this country. I'm afraid what will happen is that qualified people won't want to become doctors. It seems we've waited long enough for a medical system that treats everyone fairly so we all come out a winner. As your mom, Stefan, I encourage you to share your comments with my senators, Ron Wyden and Gordon Smith, as will as with Clinton, Kennedy, and Obama.

It's hard to believe they want to cut fees further...

2008-06-13T15:18:00.000-06:00

It's hard to believe they want to cut fees further, as all your costs go up much faster than inflation. And that's not to mention the strong inflationary pressures we're currently experiencing.

So is this basically going to send any doctors who can fill their schedule with 'cash' patients off medicare?