Dear Editor:
All previously written letters to this Senator were respectful. Claire McCaskill is articulate and intelligent. I have reached the conclusion that she and this entire Congress are playing us with their political maneuvering, wild spending, and impassioned rhetoric. Then, they point fingers and play dumb while we fight amongst ourselves. They are not dumb, or ignorant.
I have had enough of all of them, and I hope the reader can shed the emotion of politics and see the real intent of this legislation - because you don’t need a high IQ to see the depth and danger of their ways. This single hold on payments coupled with new reimbursement policies (detailed in the remainder of the memo) potentially put billions of dollars on hold for many months. This is happening NOW.
On January 4, 2010, I logged into the Medicare website to find memos and fee schedules updated 12/31/09. I’m pretty sure that Mark Harris was not working on 12/31/09, nevertheless, below is an excerpt of what prompted this letter to our Senator:
“A Message from CMS Regarding the Holding of Claims for Services Paid Under the 2010 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule by Mark Harris, Payer Relations
To the extent possible and in consideration of possible legislative changes, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is working with Congress, health care providers, and the beneficiary community to avoid disruption in the delivery of health care services and payment of claims for physicians, non-physician practitioners, and other providers of services paid under the Medicare physician fee schedule, beginning January 1, 2010. In this regard, CMS has instructed its contractors to hold claims containing services paid under the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (MPFS) for the first 10 business days of January (January 1 through January 15) for 2010 dates of service.”
THANK YOU, CLAIRE MCCASKILL.
Logging into the Medicare website, as is my custom as Administrator for a rural clinic in Missouri, I was so overwhelmed to see the first effects of the legislation you forwarded with a YES vote.
All Medicare payments are being held for the first two weeks of this year - whoopeeeeeeeee!!! There’s more—much too detailed for you to read—over 20 percent cuts in our fees, and more!! It looks to me as if Congress has tied up Medicare’s cash for the first three months of this year with some other cleverly worded bureaucratic tricks. That’s a WOW, Claire!!! How wonderful, how absolutely wonderful, your actions are responsible for our hard times.
Not just our hard times, though. After all, doctors and business people really are so expressly evil in your mind. We are not worthy of a paycheck, but look what you have done to the patients with your congressional slight of hand. It doesn’t take a lot of imagination or intelligence to figure out—no money…no service… …hmmmmmmmmmmm.
Almost as if that was the congressional goal—limit care to the elderly and disabled. Get the dollars which used to be slated for that old broken health care system, and practice skilled political blame gaming.
Has anyone told you, Claire, that you are a great humanitarian? I didn’t think so. Would you work without a paycheck, Claire? You know, like if you had a real job? I’m sure we’ll know the answer to that after the next election.
Thank you, Claire McCaskill, and God bless!
PS: The AMA represents only 20 percent of practicing physicians, and it doesn’t get to vote in the next election. The
AARP represents its insurance interests, and doesn’t vote either. Just thought you should know, in case any of that blond is real.
Michelle de la Torre,