Has anybody else run into this problem? I have been seing my podiatrist every six months for many years for routine foot care and Medicare (and my Medigap) have always paid for it. Since January Medicare refuses to pay and the podiatrist's hospital can only tell me that the claim is being denied because "I have not been seeing my Personal Care Provider" (PCP). Is there a new rule? Can I not use the podiatrist for regular foot checkups, or what has changed? The thought of trying to get information from Mdicare is a complete turn-off, hence this plea to hear from anyone else who may have encountered and found the solution to the problem. Many thanks!
I have Kaiser. I think they must have their own policies about this because I see the podiatrist a lot and hardly ever see the PCP because the only problems I ever have are with my feet.
You might want to post this on the Senior group, Olaf, because they know the most about Medicare.
my read is that medicare is desparetly trying to cut back medicare costs to cover the 750 billion yanked to pay for Obamacare.
Look again, the 750 B was not yanked. It reduced payments to providers who did not want to modernize their medical records systems. Sloppy prescriptions and other handwritten entries KILL more patients than other forms of malpractice and are rarely litigated. The money was not yanked from patients, it was yanked from providers who refused to enter the 21st century.
Your're so right, Jay. The $700 billion + that was cut cut from Medicare was a cut of overpayments to providers, not a cut to Medicare beneficiaries. These overpayments took place in the Medicare Advantage program, a private sector Medicare experiment designed to see if privatization could save the government money.
This experiment started during the Bush administration. By any economic measure, it is a failure. I appreciate the Obama administration making these cuts to providers, not recipients. These cuts extend the economic viability of Medicare for 8 years! Don't buy the Romney/Ryan campaign lie.
Olaf- I am on a Medicare Advantage Plan and I am going to my Podiatrist tomorrow. I go every 10 weeks to see my Pod. and they never say anything about my PCP. Maybe it is b/c of my Plan. I just pay a co-pay ( 35.00.) I live in PA. If you have straight Medicare it could be different than mine.
Medicare Advantage works great and gets the lumbering Medicare beaucracy out of the loop. Most discussins become between you and doctor and Insurance company and save everyone grief. They can even work with Doctor who does not bill medicare. Worst grief for me was when my Advanatge Plan stopped by medicare and my Doctor had to bill Medicare.
If any one thinks cause just because obama grabbed 750 bil from the advantage plans one can sure as hell bet the standard medicare was put on a diet to reject and reduce all claim spending wherever possible. Anybody who thinks otherwise is snorting something.
I think that you need a referral to see specialists with Medicare. I'm not on it but I've heard people grousing about it as it creates a 2 appointments to get 1 setup that is a complete waste of time.