Orthopaedic surgeons have washed their hands of ObamaCare
Among the many lessons President Obama may have learned from his healthcare fiasco is this: Don’t piss off orthopaedic surgeons.
The Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons didn’t take kindly to Obama characterized them as amputation-happy. They responded with a letter that said:
The American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) is profoundly disappointed with President Obama’s recent comments regarding the value of surgery and blurring the realities of physician reimbursements. The AAOS represents over 17,000 US board-certified orthopaedic surgeons who provide essential services to patients every day. As President Obama has said, “Where we do disagree, let’s disagree over things that are real, not these wild misrepresentations that bear no resemblance to anything that’s actually been proposed.” In that spirit, we would like to bring some clarity to his comments and underscore the value that orthopaedic surgeons bring to Americans every day of every year.
First, surgeons are neither reimbursed by Medicare, nor any provider for that matter, for foot amputations at rates anywhere close to $50,000, $40,000 or even $30,000. Medicare reimbursements to physicians for foot amputations range from approximately $700 to $1200 which includes the follow up care the surgeon provides to the patient up to 90 days after the operation. Moreover, orthopaedic surgeons are actively involved in the preventive care he mentions. We are a specialty that focuses on limb preservation whenever possible and when it is in the best interests of the patient. Our approach to amputation follows the same careful, thoughtful approach, always with the patients best interest as the primary focus.
It is also a mischaracterization to suggest that physicians are reimbursed “immediately.” The AAOS itself, along with numerous other organizations, has testified in Congressional hearings investigating the delays in reimbursement by Medicare and other payers that create additional administrative burdens making it more difficult to provide access to care for patients.
How much is Medicare reimbursement for surgically removing a president’s his head from his ass?
Source: American Thinker
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{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
I think that proceedure is done by a proctologist, however, an orthopaedist might be called on to fix a bonehead.
Wait, before a colonoscopy don’t they clean you out? Would that be enough to remove the sacred head from the sun-don’t-shine cubby?
not enough s**t in the world could clear that head
And what is really ironic is that the ill-dressed mobs at townhall meetings are the ones being berated for shouting and half-truth scare tactics. Dear Leader must know that he is full of it, and he doesn’t care. Makes little sense to offend whole industries, but they do it regularly. Guess the Dems aren’t interested in a big tent either.
Folks, let others know about the arrogant, uninformed, condescension from this elitist and his finger wagging cronies. I am tired of being addressed as a child because I disagree with this administration. (Ouch, on the reread of that last sentence I heard Hildabeast’s voice) Time to hold them accountable.
The doctors aren’t BS when they say there are delays in reimbursement. When I was doing Medicare billing, it was routine for a claim to be rejected because I didn’t check a certain box on the form. I would get my copy out……and look there, I *did* check the proper box. So I would re-submit the same claim again, and 4 weeks later it would be rejected for another imaginary reason. It was not unusual to have claims be denied over and over again for 6 mos or a year. Then there’s claims that were ignored all together. They’d be submitted & disappear into the void….even tho they were sent in with a bunch of other claims that had been processed.
I never had anywhere NEAR the paperwork problems with private insurers that I did with the government programs Medicare & Medicaid. This is what that fool Obama wants everybody to have.
I wanted to add…….for some claims I actually had to file FOIA type resubmissions to force them to actually process a claim properly. It seems they had to be threatened with public exposure of their nonsense to get them to pay a claim. That was a long time ago now, so dont know if this still is used or not.