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medpundit |
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Saturday, April 03, 2004The GAO said that "physicians are able to obtain Medicare-covered drugs at prices significantly below current Medicare payments, which are set at 95 percent of AWP. Wholesalers' and GPO's prices that would be generally available to physicians were considerably less than AWPs used to establish the Medicare payment for these drugs." According to Thomas A. Scully, former CMS administrator, "numerous studies have indicated that the ...reported wholesale prices, the data on which Medicare drug payments are based, are vastly higher than the amounts drug manufacturers and wholesalers actually charge providers. That means Medicare beneficiaries, through their premiums and cost sharing, and U.S. taxpayers, are spending far more than the "average" price that we believe the law intended them to pay." Imagine that! A government program is not operating on accurate information, but relying upon an entirely flawed system of overpayment? And we wonder why Medicare is going broke? Medicare always claims they pay too much for everything, when in reality they pay too little. And Medicare is going broke because there are more elderly people than ever, and they're living longer than ever, not because they overpay providers, believe me. posted by Sydney on 4/03/2004 08:07:00 AM 0 comments 0 Comments: |
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