Execs rip Medicare expansion plan

Chief executives from some of the nation's most-noted—and politically connected—healthcare systems lashed out against a legislative proposal to expand enrollment in the Medicare program to seniors aged 55 to 64.

Denis Cortese, M.D., CEO emeritus of the Mayo Clinic, said that the hospital sector is concerned about an expansion of Medicare when the program itself is fundamentally unsound.

“Medicare has not been able to control the growth in spending in that model,” he said. “If they extend that model to more people, we will just bankrupt the country even faster than has occurred already with regards to health reform.”

Cortese—joined by the top brass from the Marshfield (Wis.) Clinic, Franciscan Skemp Healthcare, La Crosse, Wis., and other organizations—cited poor reimbursement rates and a model that rewards more care rather than higher quality and streamlined treatment of patients as reasons to staunch a Medicare buy-in program.

Rob Nesse, CEO at Franciscan Skemp, said that over the past year, he has had to lay off employees despite his hospital being held up as an example of his quality and efficiency.

“The real gist of the issue here is, we need to reform the delivery system before Medicare can pay for value so that good groups” are rewarded, he said.

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