GOVERNMENTOpting out: Physicians exiting Medicare programFrustrated with Medicare, some physicians are leaving the program or refusing to take new enrollees.By Kathleen Phalen, amednews correspondent. June 25, 2001. Michael Schlitt, MD, might be a trendsetter, at least when it comes to Medicare. The Seattle neurosurgeon decided to drop out of the program 10 years ago. Fed up with what he viewed as government arrogance, a growing distrust of physicians and new payment equations, Dr. Schlitt decided it would be easier to treat Medicare patients for free. He once performed brain surgery for $1. "I have a beautiful three-foot-long and three-foot-tall boat a patient made and gave me for payment for surgery," he says. His decision has not hurt his practice or his patients, something he says doctors worry would happen if they leave Medicare. "To my knowledge, I have never denied care to anyone who needed it," he says. "I was more than compensated by the freedom to make the right decision for my patients and the relief of getting the government out of my operating room." Now it seems as if many other physicians are following in his footsteps. Mired in thousands of treatment codes and pages of regulations, physicians are feeling overwhelmed and overburdened, they say. Administrative headaches, along with complicated reimbursement formulas, lowered or denied payments for certain services, and the threat of fraud-and-abuse investigations, are leading some physicians to say, "No more." The government says its figures don't support the contention that doctors are rejecting Medicare. But studies and anecdotal evidence indicate that in many urban areas, including Denver, Atlanta, Austin, Texas, and Spokane, Wash., elderly patients are having difficulty finding physicians and are getting shuttled from doctor to doctor until they come across one willing to accept Medicare.
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Copyright 2001 American Medical Association. All rights reserved.
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