Medicare Monitor
The Palm Beach Post's veteran Washington correspondent, Larry Lipman, tracks policy makers and interest groups who are shaping the future of the federal health insurance program for the elderly.Medicare Web Resources
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Medicare is the federal health care system that covers about 36 million people age 65 and older, plus 7 million disabled. It has four parts:
Financed by a 2.9 percent payroll tax divided equally between employees and employers.
Financed by beneficiary premiums and federal general revenue. Current monthly premiums are $93.50. Starting this year, individuals whose taxable income is more than $80,000 will pay a higher premium.
Financed by Medicare and beneficiary premiums, which vary among plans.
The plans are private and financed by Medicare and beneficiary premiums, which vary among plans.
-- Larry Lipman
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All the entries posted on March 21, 2008.
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Home > Medicare Monitor > Archives > 2008 > March > 21
Friday, March 21, 2008
Mayo Clinic head says Congress should get out of Medicare
Medicare, governed by Congress, “pays the most dollars to the regions of the country that provide the worst outcomes, the worst safety, the worst service, and the worst integrated, coordinated care,” Cortese said. “I think that’s backwards.”
Medicare should pay fees based on results, not compliance with process measures, he said.
“Paying for process is not going to guarantee that we’re getting the outcomes. We have got to measure the outcomes,” he said.
“Right now, sometimes the more mistakes we make on patients, the more we make. We don’t make the accurate diagnosis the first time, well we get paid for the next round of tests and things. It’s a little backward from the patients’ viewpoint.
“We ought to be rewarding folks for getting it right the first time.”
Cortese said Medicare has been doing “just the opposite” of paying for value and that Congress “interferes with its ability to do what it needs to do.”
Instead of a Medicare program directed by Congress, Cortese said it should be governed by a quasi-independent agency along a model similar to the Federal Reserve system or the Securities and Exchange Commission.