FLATLINING Podcast Short: What happens when everyone is paid at Medicare rates?

This week, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services released their initial changes to the Medicare fee schedule for 2023. Analysis shows that this change could cut revenue from Medicare patients by 4.4%. For some specialties and hospitals, that is hundreds of thousands of dollars. Truth be told, however, by the time 2023 comes around the cut will probably not be that steep; no member of Congress wants to be the person who cut pay to doctors during a midterm election year. The Kaiser Family Foundation did a study a few years ago that determined the average family would save about $2000 a year if all doctors and hospitals were paid at Medicare rates. That sounds like a good idea for individuals and small businesses. But if a 4.4% cut will cut hundreds of thousands of dollars out of a specialties revenue, what about the 20% and 30% cuts they would get from not being able to negotiate higher rates from insurance companies. In 2020, Ron discussed what the consequences would be if all doctors were paid at Medicare rates. Let us know in the comments below, email us at flatlining@substack.com, or tweeting Matthew or Ron. Subscribe to the FLATLINING Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, the iHeartRadio app, Amazon Music, Google Podcasts, and Audible. Follow Matthew (@radioHandley) and Ron (@RonHowrigon) on Twitter. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.flatlining.net