Wisconsin Senior Medicare Patrol

The debate over healthcare reform continues as more articles suggest it will take patients longer to get the care they need because the system will be flooded.

Some also have concerns over how doctors will get paid. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act says they should receive the same reimbursements for Medicaid patients as Medicare – but many doctors say they only recover a fraction of costs to care for these patients.

Recently, The Buffalo News quoted a Wisconsin doctor about his concerns over the bill:

But salaries tell only part of the story, because many doctors are small-business people who cover payrolls, said Tim Bartholow, a former family practitioner who is a senior vice president of the Wisconsin Medical Society in Madison.

In the 12-doctor clinic in rural Wisconsin where he worked until 2008, 48 cents of every dollar of revenue went to overhead such as rent and salaries, he said. Onequarter of the patients were on either Medicaid or Medicare, which in Wisconsin both reimburse physicians at less than 30 percent of the actual cost of a service, he said.

To cope with the discrepancy, Bartholow and his partners kept their office simple, he said, with painted rather than wallpapered walls and no decor elements such as the fish tanks and waterfalls that he has seen in some waiting rooms.

“If you’re not mindful about what it takes to keep the door open, eventually you won’t be able to stay in business,” he said. “I hear people talk about physician greed. And that can mean, ‘Do I have enough wealth for the latest toy?’ It can also mean, ‘Do I have enough money to pay for my nurse?’ ”