(Carrie Feibel/KUHF Public Radio)
Doctors from the Harris County Medical Society met with Congressman Kevin Brady to plead for a permanent solution to the payment problem. The Woodlands Republican sits on a joint Congressional committee that must decide what to do by the end of February.
“We know fewer and fewer doctors can afford to see our Medicare patients. In fact, fewer and fewer doctors can afford to run a practice with these uncertain payments. So what I’m looking for today is the ammunition to take back to Washington.”
The problem goes back to a 1997 law that automatically adjusts the Medicare payment rate for doctors. Because of a fixed formula, the payments went up for a few years, but then became payment cuts in 2002.
Doctors say that’s not fair, because their business costs have continued to rise. So every year, Congress has stepped in to block the cuts. Still, doctors haven’t seen an increase in ten years.
(Read/listen to more at KUHF Public Radio)
OTHER HEADLINES:
- Texan in Health Care Fraud Must Repay Nearly $10M (KRIV 26 News)
- UTMB Launches Doctoral Nursing Program (Galveston Daily News)
- Teen Pregancy Profiled (KRIV 26 News)
- Texas’ New Math Standards Dependent on New Books (KRIV 26 News)
- Texas Gets a ‘C’ for School Science Courses (Houston Chronicle)
OPINIONS OF NOTE:
- Eric Berger: British Tabloid Says Forget Global Warming & Worry About Cooling. Should We? (Houston Chronicle)
- Kilday Hart: Leave the Girl Scouts Out of the Culture Wars (Houston Chronicle)