
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, April 8, 1990                   TAG: 9004080194
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: CHARLOTTESVILLE                                LENGTH: Short

UVA PHYSICIANS REJECT COMPLETE MEDICARE OPTION

University of Virginia doctors again have refused to fully participate in Medicare, opting to determine on a patient-by-patient basis whether to reject Medicare payments and charge their full fee.

The option is not open to Medicare-participating physicians, who agree in signing up with the plan to accept Medicare's generally lower payment schedule. UVa doctors exercise the option about 15 percent of the time.

UVa physicians had decided late last year to be listed with the government as Medicare participants, as are the doctors at the state's other tax-supported public hospital, the Medical College of Virginia.

The decision came in a 10-9 vote of the medical department chairmen. The vote was temporarily deferred in February on the chance that UVa might be allowed to register with Medicare while still giving individual doctors the option of not participating in the government plan that insures 33 million Americans, mostly elderly people.

UVa has been seeking an exemption to a Medicare rule requiring that all - or none - of its nearly 400 physicians be registered as Medicare participants and agree to its payment plan.

That means they must now wait until next year's Jan. 1 sign-up deadline. It also means that a number of UVa's Medicare patients will face bills from some doctors that are higher than the government insurance will pay.

by CNB