Opinion: Medicare should pay doctors more, not less, for treating the sickest patients
It doesn't make sense that Medicare will pay me the same amount to treat a new patient with a runny nose as a patient with complex health issues.
Some doctors don’t like to admit it, but money can have a major influence on physicians’ behaviors.
For years, Medicare seemed to recognize this by paying doctors more for complicated patient visits and less for straightforward ones. In addition to properly compensating physicians for more challenging work, this payment schedule helped encourage them to take on complex, time-consuming cases.
The federal government to drastically alter Medicare payments to physicians by instituting a flat rate per visit, regardless of how sick a patient is.
