Opinion
To ease ED overcrowding, spend more on Medicare and Medicaid office visits
LETTER — Posted March 12, 2007
Regarding "Crisis for nation's EDs" (Editorial, Jan. 15): Your editorial completely misses the point and proposes solutions that are destined to fail because they don't address the underlying problem due to those patients' limited access to other physicians.
Their access is limited because Medicare and Medicaid (especially) pay so poorly that many physicians no longer see Medicaid patients and limit the number of Medicare patients they see. If these patients were not using the emergency department as a primary care/urgent but non-emergent care center, the load from the uninsured could be handled easily. If Medicaid/Medicare paid well enough so that physicians could afford to see these patients and provide preventive care, many emergency room visits could be avoided.
Unless and until Medicaid and Medicare pay a fair reimbursement for the work we do, the problem only will exacerbate. Having more doctors is not the solution. I guarantee that if the reimbursements were reasonable, there would be plenty of doctors to do the work.
Physicians must make it clear both to Congress and to the American people that lives are really at stake here and that their refusal to provide a reasonable rate of reimbursement for caring for the poor and the elderly is literally killing people and is creating a disaster that is of biblical proportions.
Ed Charnock, MD, DeSoto, Texas
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2007/03/12/edlt0312.htm.
