Eyes on Medicare
Don’t be blinded by the hype over recent stories about big Medicare payouts uncovered in data analysis.
To be sure, the information is critical to understanding health care costs, but before labeling doctors — especially eye doctors — as “Medicare Millionaires” as the New York Daily News did, take a deep breath.
The data shows that about 3,300 ophthalmologists were paid a total of $3.3 billion from Medicare. Much of the spending was the result of an expensive and frequent treatment for a kind of age-related macular degeneration, the leading cause of severe vision loss in the elderly, and the cost of the drug is factored into the payments doctors receive.
Well, what’s it worth for you — or for your mom and dad — to still be able to drive to the store, to still see your children, to live independently? How much does the alternative — blindness — cost?