A majority of Texas physicians see the current health care payment system as not economically viable, according to a survey conducted by the Texas Medical Association.
Sixty-nine percent of physicians who responded to the survey reported slow payment, nonpayment, or underpayment of Medicare and Medicaid claims. An additional 61% reported a significant decrease in their incomes over the past 2 years.
Dr. Steven M. Petak
Dr. Steven Petak, a Houston-based endocrinologist, said that his practice nearly went bankrupt last year because of increased Medicare costs. Those low reimbursements, he said, are the reason his practice started phasing out Medicare patients over the past 2 years. Today, less than 10% of Dr. Petak’s patients are covered by Medicare.
According to the Texas Medical Association, less than 42% of surveyed physicians currently accept Medicare patients; half of physician respondents said they are considering opting out of Medicare entirely.
As immediate past president of the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists, Dr. Petak was in Washington in early March representing the organization. He and his colleagues met with 80 House and Senate members to discuss a fix for the Sustainable Growth Rate formula.
"Economically, it's suicidal," Dr. Petak said. In his meetings, he recommended alternative measures of estimating funding such as the Medicare Economic Index, a tool by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to annually calculate changes in practice cost.
In response to ongoing concerns, President Obama's 2012 budget proposal includes a 10-year, $370 billion plan to fix the SGR using funds from fraud reduction and adjustments to payments for pharmaceuticals and Medicaid.
In addition to Medicare and SGR woes, more than half (59%) of respondents to the TMA survey said that they are concerned about what the Affordable Care Act means for them and their patients. More than two-thirds (67%) said that they were concerned that the quality of health care would diminish and costs would increase under the law.
Further, 74% of respondents said they are disappointed with the proposed health reforms, 74% said they're anxious, and 62% said they're angry and confused.
The physician survey was conducted through monthly e-mails. Among the respondents, 95% were physicians; the rest were medical students, residents, and interns. Of the 29,764 members who received the survey, 3,587 responded.