BUSINESSSenior service: How your practice can thrive while treating older and sicker patientsThe business of treating the elderly can be a tricky one, but there are ways to care for Medicare patients and to increase your bottom line.By Mike Norbut, amednews staff. March 1, 2004. Some physicians may view treating the elderly as more of a bloodletting than a business, especially considering the way Medicare reimbursements have declined in the last several years. Senior patients generally soak up more office time and resources than younger patients. And physicians often fear that if there are too many Medicare beneficiaries in the patient pool, the inadequate revenue derived from treating them can slowly drain the practice's financial health as well. But some doctors see the increasing number of senior patients -- fueled by aging baby boomers -- as a boon. Some alter the scope of their practice to take advantage of favorable Medicare rules. Others find younger PPO patients to balance their senior populations, or they develop a niche that actually caters to seniors. Whatever the twist, some physicians have found success -- or at least managed to avoid failure -- in treating the elderly through a little creativity and ingenuity. For all of its well-documented faults and inequities, the Medicare system can be advantageous for some physicians. Not every reimbursement rate is at a critical level, and not every interaction with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services becomes a bureaucratic nightmare, physicians said. Specialists, for example, enjoy a looser network in Medicare than if they participated in a traditional managed care plan. Medicare patients aren't restricted from seeing physicians the way they might be in an HMO setting. [...]Full text of American Medical News content is available to AMA members and paid subscribers.
Copyright 2004 American Medical Association. All rights reserved.
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