Mayo Clinic AZ Medicare News Coverage

By Kelley Luckstein

Health bills would shift Medicare money to Mayo and other 'high-value' hospitals

As House and Senate lawmakers start to reconcile their health-care bills with an eye to final passage, a little-noticed provision is already prompting celebration from a small group of influential hospitals that stand to gain millions in Medicare dollars…

A revised Medicare formula represents a major lobbying victory for a coalition of hospitals based in the upper Midwest, led by the Mayo Clinic.

Their leaders sent a letter to House members in July demanding Medicare reform, as well as objecting to a government-run insurance plan, or "public option." Even the smallest in the group mobilized lobbyists and sent their leaders to Capitol Hill to press their case.

Washington Post, by Alec MacGillis, 1/5/10

Reality Check on The O’Reilly Factor

Check 5, A look into the future. The Mayo Clinic in Arizona says it will stop accepting Medicare patients because the government reimbursement is too low. Medicare cuts are a hallmark of the new health care legislation. So this is just the beginning, if you care...3,000 Arizonans do care because they will not be treated any longer at the prestigious clinic if they file under Medicare.

Fox News, 1/4/10

RANTS & RAVES: Mayo under Obamacare: Good luck, Medicare

The Mayo Clinic, praised by President Barack Obama as a national model for efficient health care, has stopped accepting Medicare patients at one of its primary-care clinics in Arizona, saying the government pays too little.

More than 3,000 patients eligible for Medicare will be forced to pay cash if they want to continue seeing their doctors at the Mayo family clinic in Glendale. Medical facilities and many doctors have stopped taking on new Medicare patients because the reimbursement rate is too low.

Nevertheless, Obamacare proposes cutting Medicare funding by $500 billion. Good luck, Medicare patients!

Florida Times-Union, 1/5/10