HOUSTON (AP) _ Experts blame declining Medicare reimbursement for hundreds of Texas doctors dropping out of the federal health care program for senior citizens.
The Houston Chronicle reported Tuesday that more than 300 Texas doctors have dropped the program in the last two years, including 50 in the first three months of 2010.
The Texas Medical Association, which did the survey, said the numbers far exceeded their assumptions. Dr. Susan Bailey, president of the Texas Medical Association, says if Congress doesn’t fix Medicare soon, there will be more and more doctors dropping out. She says the congressional promise to provide medical care to seniors “will be broken.”
The opt-outs follow years of declining Medicare reimbursement that led to a looming 21 percent cut this year.
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