New primary care physicians are offsetting the number of physicians opting out of Medicare, according to a USA Today story.
 
That leads to a relatively stable number of providers accepting new Medicare patients from 2005 to 2012, which may “allay concern that the number of physicians ‘opting out’ of Medicare has increased in recent years,” according to a January 2013 HHS Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation report.
 
HHS released the report in response to a Wall Street Journal story showing that more than 9,500 doctors dropped out of Medicare in 2012.
 
Yet 90% of office-based physicians accept new Medicare patients, a rate slightly higher than those accepting new privately insured patients, the HHS report states.
 
Physicians have been anxious about Medicare payment caps, the annual argument over the sustainable growth rate (SGR) fix and new documentation requirements, the USA Today article notes.
 
Part B News has heard about that anxiety from its readers, and some have chosen to become concierge practices – or at least become “hybrid” practices that also accept patients who pay fees for personalized services. Find out more about how that might benefit your practice in the Aug. 26 issue of Part B News.