More screwing of the military families and vets

[HeeBGBz]

Many Doctors Refusing to Accept TRICARE Patients

"The TRICARE system stands a chance of becoming virtually unusable for many servicemembers and retirees because the payment rate to physicians continues to go down and is expected to drop another 4.3% in January, 2006. The major problem is that the statutory reimbursement formula for TRICARE and Medicare is flawed in that it does not accurately reflect the true cost of running a physician practice. This means that many physicians are unable to afford to provide care to TRICARE beneficiaries. Both the House and Senate have introduced bills (H.R. 2356 and S. 1068) to address this issue. The House version is called the "Preserving Patient Access to Physicians Act of 2005."

[Ilsa]

1. This just happened to my in-laws. My father-in-law took three tours

to Vietnam in Special Forces. He now has Parkinsons Disease, probably from Agent Orange exposure. Now their local docs won't take the Tricare. Fortunately, I think he is also eligible for Medicare.

I told my M-I-L that eventually, if the insurances become stingy enough, the docs won't accept any of them. Then they won't have anyone except the most desperate patients, and they'll lobby for socialized medicine just to make ends meet.