Notes &
Cancer doctors get hit because the Administration believes specialists order too many MRIs and CT scans. Certain kinds of diagnostic imaging lose 24% under new assumptions that machines are in use 90% of the time, up from 50%. There isn’t a radiologist in America running an MRI 10.8 hours out of 12, unless he’s lining up patients on a conveyor belt. But claiming scanners are used far more often than they really are lets the Administration “score” spending cuts. And this change is applied to all expensive equipment, not just MRIs and CTs, so payments for antitumor radiation therapy will fall by up to 44%. The American Society for Radiation Oncology says it “will have a devastating effect on cancer patients’ access to care.
(via adamkatz) —>
Obama’s War on Specialists - WSJ.com
“Health care reform” is a cruel joke right now. Pay off the big insurers (subsidies for huge new patient population), let the drug companies and big hospitals off easy, and split docs by giving primary care guys raises and cutting specialists like crazy.”
