Negative Effects Of Medicare On Healthcare
Medicare changes the health care system by putting a cap on what physicians and other health care agencies are allowed to charge, setting guidelines and policies for health care reform, and by creating a base foundation for nationwide health care coverage. With the addition of prescription coverage in 1988 under the Medicare Catastrophic Coverage Act, the government could monitor the cost of prescriptions, driving the cost to the consumer down. Medicare created a stimulus for research, new medical procedures, and technology. Open heart surgery facilities, cardiac intensive care units, and extended care facilities are directly attributed to the adoption of Medicare. It has also made hospitals more efficient by
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forcing them to cut down on operating expenses. Hospitals have moved from a fee-for-service model to a value-based model, which has resulted in better health care overall. With the implementation of Medicare, the use of varied technologies has made the health care system a more efficient and lucrative program. The new uses of technology help drive down the cost of medical expenses and has helped evolve the use of robotics, to ensure proper medication dispensing and surgical accuracy. Medicare has also increased a growth in the economy by creating more jobs. With all the guidelines to follow, many health care practices have created positions to handle the billing and paperwork to meet these guidelines. Having the paperwork and billing done correctly will ensure proper payment resulting in better overall health care, as well as lowered health care cost. Since the creation of Medicare in 1965, there have and continues to have negative impacts on the health care system.
Doctors and health care facilities must cut cost, oftentimes resulting in closers of said facilities. A major negative aspect is the effect on the federal deficit. There are often expansions to Medicare without any congressional action or approval on how or where the funds come from to pay for these expansions. Therefore, the cost of these expansions gets added to the federal deficit, which in turn drives up taxes and the cost of medical care to privately insured individuals. Fraud and abuse are another concerning negative. The government processes an estimated 1.2 billion Medicare claims each year by a computer often not catching a fraudulent claim. The Government Accountability Office estimates that Medicare makes about $17 billion improper payments each year, many due to fraudulent or erroneous overpayments. Types of fraud include: billing by health care providers for services not rendered, billing for procedures not delivered, misrepresenting services, unbundling services that would normally be billed as one service, billing for unnecessary services, duplicate billing, and falsifying cost reports resulting in increased payment to health care
providers. Regardless of the positive and negative effects, Medicare as a whole has increased the care of the elderly and disabled. It has room for growth and changes.
www.nber.org/digest/apr06/w11609.html www.moneycrashers.com/importance-medicare-impacts-healthcare-budget/ www.downsizinggovernment.org/hhs/medicare-reforms www.whitehouse.gov/administration/eop/cea/TheEconomicCaseforHealthCareReform/
www.ssa.gov/policy/docs/ssb/v30n7/v30n7p9.pdf
forcing them to cut down on operating expenses. Hospitals have moved from a fee-for-service model to a value-based model, which has resulted in better health care overall. With the implementation of Medicare, the use of varied technologies has made the health care system a more efficient and lucrative program. The new uses of technology help drive down the cost of medical expenses and has helped evolve the use of robotics, to ensure proper medication dispensing and surgical accuracy. Medicare has also increased a growth in the economy by creating more jobs. With all the guidelines to follow, many health care practices have created positions to handle the billing and paperwork to meet these guidelines. Having the paperwork and billing done correctly will ensure proper payment resulting in better overall health care, as well as lowered health care cost. Since the creation of Medicare in 1965, there have and continues to have negative impacts on the health care system.
Doctors and health care facilities must cut cost, oftentimes resulting in closers of said facilities. A major negative aspect is the effect on the federal deficit. There are often expansions to Medicare without any congressional action or approval on how or where the funds come from to pay for these expansions. Therefore, the cost of these expansions gets added to the federal deficit, which in turn drives up taxes and the cost of medical care to privately insured individuals. Fraud and abuse are another concerning negative. The government processes an estimated 1.2 billion Medicare claims each year by a computer often not catching a fraudulent claim. The Government Accountability Office estimates that Medicare makes about $17 billion improper payments each year, many due to fraudulent or erroneous overpayments. Types of fraud include: billing by health care providers for services not rendered, billing for procedures not delivered, misrepresenting services, unbundling services that would normally be billed as one service, billing for unnecessary services, duplicate billing, and falsifying cost reports resulting in increased payment to health care
providers. Regardless of the positive and negative effects, Medicare as a whole has increased the care of the elderly and disabled. It has room for growth and changes.
www.nber.org/digest/apr06/w11609.html www.moneycrashers.com/importance-medicare-impacts-healthcare-budget/ www.downsizinggovernment.org/hhs/medicare-reforms www.whitehouse.gov/administration/eop/cea/TheEconomicCaseforHealthCareReform/
www.ssa.gov/policy/docs/ssb/v30n7/v30n7p9.pdf