For this reason, the societies and neurosurgeons are urging Congress to permanently repeal the sustainable growth rate formula to prevent the further erosion of seniors’ access to timely, quality neurosurgical care. The AANS and CNS said in the release that they do not support temporary “fixes” to this payment problem and are calling on lawmakers to reject short-term solutions that will only make it more costly to repeal the SGR in the future.
The survey found the following key changes over the past three to five years for Medicare patients (respondent percentages in parentheses):
- It has gotten harder to refer patients to certain medical and surgical specialists (67.2 percent).
- More physicians are referring Medicare patients with complex problems to other doctors (64.8 percent).
- Many Medicare patients now have to travel further to get needed care (63.7 percent).
- Neurosurgeons are reducing the number of Medicare patients in their practice due to low reimbursement (59.2 percent).
The surgeons reported the following concerns of the timely access Medicare patients have to care:
- The average waiting time for a patient appointment is 24.1 days for new patients and 19.5 days for established patients.
- Neurosurgeons who limit the number of Medicare appointment slots do so through the scheduling process (42 percent), by limiting the overall number of Medicare patients they treat (35 percent) or by selecting patients based on their geographic location (10 percent).
Nearly 40 percent of respondents indicated that if Medicare payments continue to decline, they will decrease the number of new Medicare patients they see and over 18 percent will no longer take any new Medicare patients, according to the release. Over 50 percent said they would stop providing certain services and nearly 53 percent day they would reduce the amount of time spent with Medicare patients.
The survey also concluded that Medicare patients in certain areas of the U.S. experience more difficulties in finding neurosurgeons, especially in the Southwest.
Read the CNS’s release neurosurgeons’ reactions to Medicare payment cuts (pdf).
