Medicare not!

While on call I saw and treated a patient from another state who had just moved here. He asked me it I could set him up with a primary care physician. I said, sure no problem and referred him to our university medical centers department of internal medicine. I then got a letter back that stated that the university internal medicine department as well as family practice departments are no longer accepting new Medicare patients. The Geriatrics department is going non-participating and will only see Medicare patients if they have certian secondary insurances.

By the way, the University Medical Center is Federally funded as are its residency programs. I called the Chairman of Medicine and asked whats up. He said that they were getting creamed with so many patients because everyone in the community is fed up with Medicare and dropping it. They also are going broke trying to see Medicare and feel that the only way they can survive is to decrease the amount they see which means no more government insurance.