Political Quotes

“The way we control costs within the Medicare system is through price controls dictated by the Federal Government. There are a whole host of problems we run into all the time with the uneconomic decisions, in many cases, by CMS--which is the agency that runs Medicare--in reimbursing for services. We have lots of places in this country where doctors will not provide services to Medicare recipients because the reimbursement does not match what their costs are. We talked to lots of hospitals and they will tell you, depending on the region--because it is different in different regions--this is a very convoluted price control system. They will tell you they are not getting the proper reimbursements for their services and they cannot afford to provide those services, or if it was not for private payers in certain regions of the country, these hospitals would be going under because of the reimbursement dictated, not by the market, not by what beneficiaries value, but by what is decided in Baltimore, MD, by a bunch of people sitting behind a desk who have no idea of what it costs in Coudersport, PA, to provide OB/GYN service, or gynecological services, in this case, because you don't have a private-sector service for Medicare recipients. Nevertheless, the point is, you have an artificially imposed price control from a very far-removed entity.”