SACRAMENTO, Calif., July 25,
2024 /PRNewswire/ -- A new brief released today by
the Center for Medical Economics and Innovation at the nonpartisan
Pacific Research Institute finds that artificially low
reimbursement rates used by Medicare to contain costs are
threatening patient care, and reform is needed to prevent future
doctor shortages.
Click to download the brief
"Price controls used by government-run health care systems
globally to contain costs lead to delays, lower quality, and worse
health outcomes," said Dr. Wayne
Winegarden, director of PRI's Center for Medical Economics
and Innovation. "U.S. patients could also face doctor shortages
unless Medicare's low doctor reimbursement rates are reformed and
proposals for single-payer health care are rejected."
Doctor shortages are a common experience in government-run
health care systems globally. According to a 2022 Our Care survey,
22% of Canadians do not have a family doctor or nurse practitioner,
while the average number of doctors per 1,000 people in the
United Kingdom was just 2.9 per
1,000 people, compared to 3.7 per 1,000 people in OECD
European Union nations.
A growing driver of doctor shortages in the U.S. and around the
world is inadequate doctor compensation, which arises because
government-run health care systems such as Medicare impose
increasingly uneconomical price controls on doctors to control
rising costs. The problem would grow worse in the U.S. if a
single-payer health care system is enacted.
Medicare's low reimbursement rates bring real income losses for
physicians as the fear of doctor shortages is growing. According to
the brief:
- While average prices grew 27.4% from 2013 through 2022,
reimbursement rates grew just 7.3% percent based on the average
Medicare payment amount and 1.3% based on the average Medicare
standardized payment amount (adjusting payments for geographic
differences in payment rates).
- Between 2001 and 2024, consumer (78.4%), producer (83.7%), and
health care (110.3%) prices grew more than double the increases in
physician office prices (32.5%), documenting the income losses for
doctors.
- Since 2020, physician office price increases (6.6%) continued
to lag the growth in consumer (22.3%) and producer (38.7%) prices,
though health care price increases slowed significantly
(8.7%).
Unless the problem of low reimbursement rates is resolved,
patients will have less access to care and increased wait times to
see a doctor or specialist, while overall health care costs would
ironically increase. Vulnerable and rural populations would be
impacted the most.
Among the reforms suggested in the brief are:
- Indexing physician reimbursement rates to a cost index, such as
the Medicare Economic Index, to prevent inflation from eroding
physician incomes.
- Reforming the Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS)
program, which addresses problems associated with the doctor
fee-for-service model and incentivizes value-based care, to
reduce the costly burdens on providers and incentivize more
innovative, patient-driven care.
The Pacific Research Institute
(www.pacificresearch.org) champions freedom,
opportunity, and personal responsibility through free-market policy
ideas. Follow PRI on Facebook, Twitter,
and LinkedIn.
Media Contact
Emeline
Bogle
(202) 970-9742
380826@email4pr.com
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SOURCE Pacific Research Institute