Mayo Clinic Stops Treating Medicaid, Medicare Patients in Some States
October 14, 2009
The Mayo Clinic has announced that it will stop treating Medicaid patients from Montana and Nebraska as of Jan. 1, unless they have rare diagnoses that cannot be treated elsewhere according to a report by the Minneapolis Star Tribune.
Additionally, a number of the clinic's primary care physicians in Arizona will opt out of Medicare on the same date, according to the report.
The decision to stop treating these patients was made in response to reimbursement rates that do not recoup the cost of care, according to the report. Medicaid and Medicare patients from other states that contract with Mayo, including Minnesota, will still be treated.
According to the report, 40 percent of Mayo's patients are enrolled in Medicare, and the hospital lost $840 million on the treatment of Medicare patients last year due to reimbursement rates that did not cover the cost of care, according to the report.
The Mayo Clinic is currently asking the government to implement a new Medicare payment method that would reimburse for outcomes as opposed to the number of procedures, according to the report.
Read the Minneapolis Star Tribune's report on the Mayo Clinic.
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