Medicare Bill a 'Mini-Death Panel' Proposal?

It permanently reshapes how Medicare reimburses doctors for treating more than 50 million elderly people.

Late Tuesday the U.S. Senate voted 92 to 8 to send the bill to the White House.
 
President Barack Obama says he is ready to sign the bill. He says it will protect health coverage for a huge number of Americans.

But some health experts are raising concerns that Congress is about to create a "mini-death panel" that weeds out the sickest patients on Medicare, according to the National Center for Public Policy Research.

The bipartisan bill would restructure Medicare's payment system, grading doctors based on patient scores. Critics say the grading system MIPS, or Merit-Based Incentive Payment System, would cause doctors to avoid treating the sickest patients.

"One of the big worries, though, is that it would produce policies that would cut costs, and it would do so sort of on the backs of the sickest patients, and that's kind of exactly what you're seeing here with MIPS. So in that way, I think it's very much a death panel-like policy." Dr. David Hogberg, senior fellow at NCPPR, told CBN News.

"Its ostensible purpose is to improve quality and cut costs. Its likely outcome is that it will harm the sickest patients," Hogberg said. "This is what happens when an unaccountable group of people pay no cost if the decisions they make are wrong."

"It will be run by unaccountable bureaucrats at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services with advice from professional medical organizations," he said. "Neither will pay a cost - such as a loss of employment - if the decisions they make about MIPS are wrong, harming patients. That's a recipe for bad outcomes."

What would this bill mean for Medicare patients? Dr. David Hogberg explains. Click play to watch.