How patients are the ultimate losers whenever physician payment rates are cut. Take a close look at Medi-Cal, and you get a sense of where Medicare is headed:
Reimbursement rates, doctors say, already are so low that a patient office visit nets only $24. Some clinics say the numbers simply don’t work anymore. The result: Thousands of patients guaranteed healthcare under state law can’t get in to a doctor’s office, so they don’t go or they sit for hours in an emergency room.
Experts warn that things may get much worse.
Pete Stark, doctors have called your bluff.
