THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, July 25, 1995 TAG: 9507250265
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B6 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MARIE JOYCE, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Short : 45 lines
A local group interested in health care reform has a message for the federal government: Medicare is a mess.
The group is The Coalition of The Public and Physicians for Sensible Health Care Reform. Its members - doctors and patients - support a protest organized by a national organization that wants to reduce government and insurance company power over health care.
``Medicare Patient Freedom Day'' is Monday, July 31, a day after the 30th anniversary of the founding of Medicare, the federal government health insurance program for the elderly.
The national observance is sponsored by the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons. The Arizona-based group, which has about 5,000 members nationwide, wants doctors to charge their Medicare patients just $1 for services on that day, then refuse to bill Medicare.
Only one local physician, Chesapeake anesthesiologist Dr. Robert K. Su, has signed up so far, according to the association's executive director. Only five doctors are participating throughout Virginia and only about 300 nationwide.
However, members of the Hampton Roads coalition - an independent group of about 300 people - have passed out protest enrollment forms to doctors, and more forms are coming in every day, said protest organizers.
At a news conference Monday, representatives outlined their complaints.
Among other things, Medicare frequently rejects legitimate claims from patients, they said. And it interferes with the doctor-patient relationship by pressuring doctors to get people out of the hospital quickly, even when they need more care.
The protest is ``to tell Medicare we do not accept their dictates,'' Su said.
Dr. Jane Orient, director of the national association, said Medicare requires mounds of paperwork that take away from doctors' time with their patients. And the fines are huge if a doctor makes a mistake on the paperwork, she said.
KEYWORDS: MEDICARE PROTEST by CNB