Medicare problems - true?

[EricPhan]

Is this accurate?

"Medical professionals across the country have always had difficulty getting paid by Medicare for their services. Medicare is famous for creatively denying medical claims.

This year, Medicare has pulled a new one. Claiming that they are updating their computer systems (which they are---they are trying to electronically centralize medical information from across the country), they have forced medical practices to "re-register". Pending the processing of these new registrations, Medicare has frozen all payments. Medicare has offered no promises on how long "processing" takes.

Some practices have received NO PAYMENTS for almost one year, and 1. have not heard back from Medicare 2. have had their applications denied for no reason, or returned to them for new rounds of "processing", or 3. Medicare has "lost" the paperwork altogether."

http://mikeruppert.blogspot.com/2008...-today_29.html

[kingcopper]

Re: Medicare problems - true?

could be, however I live in a rather large community supported by the medical profession and haven't heard anything like this. In fact, we have several providers that work only with medicare and medicaid and they're both posting strong growth and profits.

[rj1]

Re: Medicare problems - true?

My mom works as a CFO at a hospital and she always says getting Medicare to pay in full is pulling teeth. But this has been something that's been going on for years.

[don]

Re: Medicare problems - true?

My wife just wrapped up year-long surgery and chemo-therapy. Coverage was through Health Net. We were forwarded copies of all the bills. I don't recall any of them being paid in full by our provider. That was accepted by the physicians, hospitals and labs. No one made up the 'shortfall'.

I wonder if the gov, through Medicare, is actually paying the highest percentage of billing?

[shadrack]

Re: Medicare problems - true?

I'm not aware of any Medicare reimbursement abnormalities through the last quarter, meaning that there are always some issues but I don't recall any out of the norm.

Medical professionals across the country have always had difficulty getting paid by Medicare for their services. Medicare is famous for creatively denying medical claims.

A better understanding of the Medicare system will help physicians and billing professionals achieve better reimbursement rates. There are plenty of insurance companies that creatively refuse claims as much or more than Medicare does.