Update: Oklahoma Doctors and Medicare rate cuts

In April, Dr. K.A. Mehta, Oklahoma Medical Association’s president, said that doctors warned Oklahoma residents and Congress that they may have to see less patients who use Medicare—the nation’s largest affordable health care option. However, President Obama’s Preservation of Access to Care for Medicare Beneficiaries and Pension Relief Act of 2010 (H.R. 3962) counteract the proposed cuts that caused the warnings. In fact, there is also a 2.2% increase that the Senate had failed to pass on June 16, 2002.

This was a huge relief to doctors in Oklahoma and to its residents desperately needing affordable health care. Medicare recipients are often disabled and unemployed, resulting in the need for government health insurance. If the doctors had started refusing to see Medicare patients or starting seeing less patients, that could have caused a rise in the cost of health insurance.

There is currently a doctor shortage in Oklahoma and residents are already feeling the pinch. For Medicare patients, this would have been devastating and potentially prohibitive to affordable health care. They may have been forced to pay for visits out of pocket or travel greater distances to other physicians.
According to the Act’s summary, “Medicare physician payment rates are scheduled to be reduced by more than 20 percent in June. This provision would reverse that reduction and provide a 2.2 percent update to physician payment rates through November 30, 2010. This provision is estimated to cost approximately $6.4 billion over 10 years.”

While it is not a permanent fix to the problem, it is a temporary relief to Oklahoma residents who use Medicare as an affordable health care option. Residents and doctors will keep their eyes open for what happens in November.