Medicare math

In response to Froma Harrop’s Feb. 28 commentary “Medicare and our medical magic show”: The author is clearly in the wrong when she extols the virtues of Medicare. She does not understand that most practices cannot survive on Medicare patients predominantly.

However, she correctly points out that abysmal charges levied on the patients by hospitals lead to dramatic increase in health care costs. It is true that hospital administrators fill their pockets with the moneys generated through such practices. Most hospitals are now buried under the burden of tremendous bureaucracy. In a bigger hospital, there are virtually hundreds of administrators from top to bottom.

A little-known secret is that hospital associations got their goodies from the Obama health care bill through the power of lobbying. Insurance companies got theirs, too. Who was left out? The patients. The consumers.

One way to balance this power is to encourage a direct relationship between doctors and patients. Medicare and Medicaid should reimburse doctors respectfully. Current rates are just not viable. I am opening my private practice and have signed up for Medicare and Medicaid. Whether I will continue to do that down the road is not entirely up to me.

Manish A. Fozdar, M.D.

Raleigh