PredFan vs the Union

[PredFan]

History:

Our hospital does the bulk of indigent and medicare/medicaid patients in the Orlando area. We have the designated trauma center for the Central Florida Area. Obamacare has drastically cut back the amout of money that the government gives to doctors and hospitals for medicaid/medicare. This resulted in losses for the hospital system.

As of a few months ago, management has been making cuts to stop the bleeding of money, these have included cutting non-patient care positions, and cutting back on management staff among many other cost-saving measures. All of us have been concerned for months about our jobs and still don't know how many will lose their jobs. The most recent cost-saving measure was to cut the night shift differential. That is the exctra pay incentive for working the night shift.

That move has enraged a large portion of the night shift personel and so much so that they now have union representation.

- - - -

I am and have always been anti-union. My mind has not changed on this matter. Still the question is of what I will do. I want to keep my job, I like my job, but I think unions are destructive and abusive. Certainly this hospital system cannot survive as is with union employees. Should I care? I'm 57, my IRA is pretty well set up and I only need 10 years to retire. I do care that patient care will be adversly affected but what can a lone voice crying nin the wilderness do?

If the whole hospital staff goes union will I go as well? How will I handle that and what will I do if a strike is called? I tend to think I will cross the line for my patients but is that worth the abuse from the union people?

Where do union people think money comes from, that's what I want to know. This system is losing 11 million dollars a year and if we make no cuts in staff or pay, what DO we cut?

The other two hospital systems in this town are a Nemours and severl of the Seventh Day Adventist hiospitals. All of them have very deep pockets while our hospital system is local and does not. That plus union employees spells bad things for the hospital and our patients.

 

[Jarlaxle]

Are you in a RTW state?

 

[Black_Label]

You can thank your far right teabagger governor for that, which I'm sure you voted for.

The democrats wanted to expand medicaid/care to make sure what you are experiencing wouldn't happen, but your GOP politicians you support, have given you and countless others the middle finger.

Hopefully this hits home and you flip your support to the party of freedom and the constitution, and that's not the GOP,...

 

[NoTeaPartyPleez]

You can thank your far right teabagger governor for that, which I'm sure you voted for.

The democrats wanted to expand medicaid/care to make sure what you are experiencing wouldn't happen, but your GOP politicians you support, have given you and countless others the middle finger.

Hopefully this hits home and you flip your support to the party of freedom and the constitution, and that's not the GOP,...

Rick Scott is the worst governor that ever happened to Flori-DUH.

 

[JoeB131]

History:

Our hospital does the bulk of indigent and medicare/medicaid patients in the Orlando area. We have the designated trauma center for the Central Florida Area. Obamacare has drastically cut back the amout of money that the government gives to doctors and hospitals for medicaid/medicare. This resulted in losses for the hospital system.

As of a few months ago, management has been making cuts to stop the bleeding of money, these have included cutting non-patient care positions, and cutting back on management staff among many other cost-saving measures. All of us have been concerned for months about our jobs and still don't know how many will lose their jobs. The most recent cost-saving measure was to cut the night shift differential. That is the exctra pay incentive for working the night shift.

That move has enraged a large portion of the night shift personel and so much so that they now have union representation.

- - - -

I am and have always been anti-union. My mind has not changed on this matter. Still the question is of what I will do. I want to keep my job, I like my job, but I think unions are destructive and abusive. Certainly this hospital system cannot survive as is with union employees. Should I care? I'm 57, my IRA is pretty well set up and I only need 10 years to retire. I do care that patient care will be adversly affected but what can a lone voice crying nin the wilderness do?

If the whole hospital staff goes union will I go as well? How will I handle that and what will I do if a strike is called? I tend to think I will cross the line for my patients but is that worth the abuse from the union people?

Where do union people think money comes from, that's what I want to know. This system is losing 11 million dollars a year and if we make no cuts in staff or pay, what DO we cut?

The other two hospital systems in this town are a Nemours and severl of the Seventh Day Adventist hiospitals. All of them have very deep pockets while our hospital system is local and does not. That plus union employees spells bad things for the hospital and our patients.

As others have pointed out, the real problem is your boy Rick Scott is the one who has refused to expand Medicare unless private insurance companies are managing it. (Rick worked for Private Insurance before going into politics.)

 

[eagle1462010]

Obamacare To Slash Hundreds Of Billions From Medicare Advantage Over Next 10 Years - Forbes

Earlier this month, officials at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced that they’d increase payments in the market-based Medicare Advantage program by 3.3 percent next year.

The decision is remarkable, as CMS hinted just two months ago that it would reduce payments by 2.2 percent in 2014.


The CMS flip-flop is good news for seniors and taxpayers alike. But Medicare Advantage is not out of the woods yet. Obamacare is set to slash hundreds of billions from the program over the next 10 years.

That’s a mistake. Medicare Advantage delivers better care at lower cost than does conventional Medicare. The program should be expanded — not cut, as the president and his allies advocate.

Some 14 million seniors — more than a quarter of all beneficiaries — have enrolled in Medicare Advantage.

Under the terms of the program, beneficiaries choose from among several privately administered plans. Insurers compete for seniors’ business by offering plans with a variety of coverage levels and out-of-pocket costs. That competition drives down costs — and grants seniors access to services and benefits that they often cannot get through traditional Medicare.

The cuts CMS contemplated would have had a disastrous impact on seniors’ care. If the cuts had gone through, MA plans would have faced revenue reductions of 6.9 to 7.8 percent in 2014, according to a report from Oliver Wyman, a consultancy.

Consequently, seniors would have had to deal with higher out-of-pocket costs, fewer benefits, and fewer plan choices.

Even worse, as the report pointed out, “individuals with lower incomes and those more likely to need medical services [would] be particularly adversely affected.” The payment reductions would have caused insurers to eliminate dental services and coverage of over-the-counter medications for many low-income seniors who cannot afford — or are legally barred from paying — higher premiums.

CMS’s proposed cuts would have come on top of $202 billion in cuts to Medicare Advantage prescribed by Obamacare. Taken together, seniors would have been facing benefit cuts and cost increases of as much as $90 a month — or more than $1,000 a year.

By reversing course, CMS has apparently decided to let Obamacare slowly bleed Medicare Advantage to death.

Trimmed. Do Not Post Entire Articles. -Intense

 

[eagle1462010]

By reversing course, CMS has apparently decided to let Obamacare slowly bleed Medicare Advantage to death.

4.8 Million effected by 2019. The slow bleed of taking out Advantage begins.

 

[JoeB131]

Obamacare To Slash Hundreds Of Billions From Medicare Advantage Over Next 10 Years - Forbes

Earlier this month, officials at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced that they’d increase payments in the market-based Medicare Advantage program by 3.3 percent next year.

The decision is remarkable, as CMS hinted just two months ago that it would reduce payments by 2.2 percent in 2014.

.

Awesome. MEdicare Advantage was a HUGE ripoff where the Insurance Companies were sucking at the teet of government.

 

[JoeB131]

By reversing course, CMS has apparently decided to let Obamacare slowly bleed Medicare Advantage to death.

4.8 Million effected by 2019. The slow bleed of taking out Advantage begins.

And again, this would be a bad thing, why?

Ed Hanaway won't get his Dressage Pony and his 89 foot boat?

 

[eagle1462010]

The Ratio of Obamacare's Medicare Cuts to New 'Benefits' is Fifteen-to-One - Forbes

President Obama insists that Obamacare’s $718 billion in cuts to Medicare don’t affect seniors’ benefits. That’s misleading enough on its own. But the President goes even further, by claiming that his signature health law actually expands benefits for seniors, because the law slightly increases Medicare spending on preventive services and prescription drugs. But according to the Congressional Budget Office, for every $500 the law spends on preventive services and prescription drugs, it cuts the rest of Medicare by $7,385. That’s a cut-to-spending ratio of nearly 15 to 1.


“I have strengthened Medicare as President,” the President insisted in his recent speech to the AARP. “We used those [$716 billion in] savings to lower prescription drug costs, and to offer seniors on Medicare new preventive services like cancer screenings and wellness services.”

CBO: Obamacare’s Medicare cuts vastly outweigh new benefits

So let’s review the numbers. First, the $716 billion estimate of Obamacare’s net cuts to Medicare over the next ten years comes from the most recent projections from the Congressional Budget Office, dated July 24, 2012. Page 14 of that document also notes that the ACA increases net spending on Medicare Part D—the prescription-drug program—by $48 billion over the same period. That $48 billion is counted toward the $716 billion in net cuts; i.e., Obamacare spends $48 billion more on Part D while cutting the rest of Medicare by $764 billion.



That report doesn’t break out the law’s new spending on preventive care within Medicare, because the amount is too small. For that figure, we have to go back to the CBO’s original estimate of Obamacare’s costs, dated March 20, 2010.

That report describes three spending provisions related to Medicare preventive care: Section 4103, “Medicare Coverage of Annual Wellness Visit Providing a Personalized Prevention Plan”; Section 4104, “Removal of Barriers to Preventive Services in Medicare”; and Section 4105, “Evidence-Based Coverage of Preventive Services in Medicare.”

In the period 2010-2019, the CBO projected $3.6 billion in new spending on wellness visits, $0.8 billion in new spending on “removal of barriers,” and $0.7 billion in cuts to evidence-based coverage, for a total of $3.7 billion over ten years. Given the fact that these spending changes appear to flatten from 2013-2019 (see the table below), we can safely say that the CBO’s estimates of net new spending on these programs from 2013-2022 is about $4 billion.

Hence, Obamacare’s increases in net spending on preventive care and the prescription-drug program amount to $52 billion from 2013-2022, according to the CBO. Offsetting this new spending is $768 billion in net Medicare cuts elsewhere, a ratio of 15 to 1.

Medicare’s ‘donut hole’ only affects 6 percent of seniors

According to the President, the key benefit of Obamacare’s increased spending on Medicare’s drug benefit is what it does for Part D’s “prescription drug coverage gap,” also known as the “donut hole.”

What’s important to remember about the donut hole is that only a tiny fraction of seniors are actually affected by it. 94 percent of seniors either have commercial prescription-drug coverage (39%), or are eligible for low-income subsidies (30%), or never reached the donut hole (25%).

Of the 6 percent that even came in contact with the donut hole, only 1 percent actually reached the catastrophic threshold; i.e., they spent through the entire amount of the donut hole. The majority of that 6 percent hit the donut hole, but paid a small amount in out-of-pocket costs.

If you want to be as generous as possible to the President on this point, you can further unpack Obamacare’s spending on Medicare Part D. The law spends about $70 billion from 2013-2022 on closing the donut hole. The law makes $22 billion in offsetting cuts to Part D, in part by increasing premiums for certain beneficiaries and removing funding for the program’s complaint system.

If you count the $70 billion in donut hole spending and ignore the $22 billion in offsetting Part D cuts, you get to a ratio of 11 to 1 instead of 15 to 1. But remember that the donut hole changes affect only 6 percent of seniors, whereas the remaining $786 billion in cuts affect everyone. So it’s fairest to use the $48 billion figure and the 15:1 ratio.

Yes, Obamacare’s Medicare cuts do affect current seniors’ benefits

Whether you decide Obamacare’s offsetting cuts are $768 billion or $786 billion, there can be no doubt that those cuts do affect seniors’ benefits. The President’s own Medicare actuary, Richard Foster, wrote in 2010 that the law’s substantial cuts to Medicare Advantage would “result in less generous benefit packages,” cutting Medicare enrollment by half.

In addition, by slashing payments to health-care providers, Foster projected that 15 percent of hospitals would become permanently unprofitable. It will become much harder for seniors to gain access to doctors, more and more of whom will bail out of the program due to its decreasing reimbursements.

There’s an intellectually honest case to make in support of Obamacare’s Medicare cuts. If you believe that taking money out of Medicare in order to expand subsidies of coverage for younger Americans is a good thing, then you have every reason to support what Obamacare did to Medicare. But it’s not intellectually honest to claim that these cuts are inconsequential, or that they’re offset by relatively trivial spending on “new benefits.” As President Obama recently put it, “You can’t just make stuff up.”

 

[eagle1462010]

Joe the communist weighs in on the 87 foot boat'

LOL

Point being via the Op hospitals are under forced Budget cuts thanks to the ACA.

I'm just pointing out why under the ACA.

You can't make these kinds of cuts without DIRECTLY EFFECTING THE BUDGETS OF HOSPITALS. You know the ones that actually SAVE AND MEND PEOPLE. So now, the ACA demands the Hospitals DO MORE WITH LESS and it has a DIRECT RELATION TO THE ACA.

During the passage of this BS Law, this area was covered in discussion. Many said it would have adverse effects, and these effects have begun.

 

[Connery]

Moved to proper forum

 

[eagle1462010]

Medicare, Medicaid proposed cuts could make it impossible for hospitals to be profitable, force docs to stop seeing patients - News - The Times-Tribune

No need to cut and paste. Read if you so desire.

30% cut to Doctors. Mandatory 2% cuts to Medicare. Cost to Penn. 1.3 BILLION in Medicare cuts.

Just push the data over 50 States and you'll see at least 70 Billion in cuts a year, but during the discussion of the cuts they said the over 700 Billion in cuts to Medicare over 10 years were nothing more than GOP PROPOGANDA.

The Dems do increase spending on the Donut Hole. So Grandma can get the PAIN PILL instead of the hip replacement. The CMS will decide who's worthy of treatment, and quite frankly since they've are no longer a useful productive member of society they are no longer worthy of costly surgical procedures to allow them a better life in their old age.............

Do you people remember those arguments..................

I'm sure you do, but as they slowly occur you simply ignore the data because now we have the Gov't in control of our Health Care. More Gov't Good..................

Just a reminder. Please hurry with your medical Records to the Federal Data Base and beat the rush. The Gov't demands your PRIVATE INFO be on the WEB. Those who wanted this BS Law should be at the HEAD OF THE LINE.

 

[Care4all]

History:

Our hospital does the bulk of indigent and medicare/medicaid patients in the Orlando area. We have the designated trauma center for the Central Florida Area. Obamacare has drastically cut back the amout of money that the government gives to doctors and hospitals for medicaid/medicare. This resulted in losses for the hospital system.

As of a few months ago, management has been making cuts to stop the bleeding of money, these have included cutting non-patient care positions, and cutting back on management staff among many other cost-saving measures. All of us have been concerned for months about our jobs and still don't know how many will lose their jobs. The most recent cost-saving measure was to cut the night shift differential. That is the exctra pay incentive for working the night shift.

That move has enraged a large portion of the night shift personel and so much so that they now have union representation.

- - - -

I am and have always been anti-union. My mind has not changed on this matter. Still the question is of what I will do. I want to keep my job, I like my job, but I think unions are destructive and abusive. Certainly this hospital system cannot survive as is with union employees. Should I care? I'm 57, my IRA is pretty well set up and I only need 10 years to retire. I do care that patient care will be adversly affected but what can a lone voice crying nin the wilderness do?

If the whole hospital staff goes union will I go as well? How will I handle that and what will I do if a strike is called? I tend to think I will cross the line for my patients but is that worth the abuse from the union people?

Where do union people think money comes from, that's what I want to know. This system is losing 11 million dollars a year and if we make no cuts in staff or pay, what DO we cut?

The other two hospital systems in this town are a Nemours and severl of the Seventh Day Adventist hiospitals. All of them have very deep pockets while our hospital system is local and does not. That plus union employees spells bad things for the hospital and our patients.

Is the differential pay for midnight shift needed in order to get a good staff working the midnight shift? I worked at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami, (In the Blood Bank) in my youth, and I don't think we would have had anyone working in the hospital on midnight shift if the hospital did not pay the differential pay...

Do you think this is the same at your hospital...qualified people who need jobs will choose not to work there on Midnights if the differential is not paid to them? Or are there so many people unemployed that the positions could be filled with qualified people?

As far as the Union, do what is right for you...not every union is corrupt, the workers are workers just like you....if you worked with these people before they were unionized and felt they were decent people then they will be the same good and decent people even if they joined a Union....and you would be the same person as well....

 

[eagle1462010]

Sequestration Delivers Cuts to Family Physicians, Education Programs -- AAFP News Now -- AAFP

April 03, 2013 01:00 pm News Staff – The across-the-board budget reductions called for by the Budget Control Act's (BCA's) sequestration provision took effect on April 1, triggering a 2 percent reduction in the Medicare physician payment rate and a 2 percent cut in graduate medical education (GME) programs.

Edited by moderator for Fair Use.

 

[JoeB131]

Joe the communist weighs in on the 87 foot boat'

LOL

Point being via the Op hospitals are under forced Budget cuts thanks to the ACA.

I'm just pointing out why under the ACA.

You can't make these kinds of cuts without DIRECTLY EFFECTING THE BUDGETS OF HOSPITALS. You know the ones that actually SAVE AND MEND PEOPLE. So now, the ACA demands the Hospitals DO MORE WITH LESS and it has a DIRECT RELATION TO THE ACA.

During the passage of this BS Law, this area was covered in discussion. Many said it would have adverse effects, and these effects have begun.

Medical inflation is three times regular inflation. You can't keep throwing money at a problem.

The point is, a big, honking payout to big insurance through Medicare Part C was always a waste from day one.

 

[Care4all]

Medicare, Medicaid proposed cuts could make it impossible for hospitals to be profitable, force docs to stop seeing patients - News - The Times-Tribune

No need to cut and paste. Read if you so desire.

30% cut to Doctors. Mandatory 2% cuts to Medicare. Cost to Penn. 1.3 BILLION in Medicare cuts.

Just push the data over 50 States and you'll see at least 70 Billion in cuts a year, but during the discussion of the cuts they said the over 700 Billion in cuts to Medicare over 10 years were nothing more than GOP PROPOGANDA.

The Dems do increase spending on the Donut Hole. So Grandma can get the PAIN PILL instead of the hip replacement. The CMS will decide who's worthy of treatment, and quite frankly since they've are no longer a useful productive member of society they are no longer worthy of costly surgical procedures to allow them a better life in their old age.............

Do you people remember those arguments..................

I'm sure you do, but as they slowly occur you simply ignore the data because now we have the Gov't in control of our Health Care. More Gov't Good..................

Just a reminder. Please hurry with your medical Records to the Federal Data Base and beat the rush. The Gov't demands your PRIVATE INFO be on the WEB. Those who wanted this BS Law should be at the HEAD OF THE LINE.

It specifically says in the article you linked to that the 2% mandatory cut to Medicare is DUE TO THE SEQUESTER, and NOT coming to an agreement on Raising the debt ceiling....your article is from 2011 (in case you did not notice)

Me thinks you are MIXING UP Obamacare debate, VERSES THE SEQUESTER debate, the debt ceiling debate....

 

[PredFan]

Are you in a RTW state?

Yes, I am.

 

[PredFan]

You can thank your far right teabagger governor for that, which I'm sure you voted for.

The democrats wanted to expand medicaid/care to make sure what you are experiencing wouldn't happen, but your GOP politicians you support, have given you and countless others the middle finger.

Hopefully this hits home and you flip your support to the party of freedom and the constitution, and that's not the GOP,...

You are completely full of shit. It is Obamacare that caused the government to paying up to 40% less than they used to. Typical "screw things up and blame the GOP" left wing lunacy..

 

[PredFan]

You can thank your far right teabagger governor for that, which I'm sure you voted for.

The democrats wanted to expand medicaid/care to make sure what you are experiencing wouldn't happen, but your GOP politicians you support, have given you and countless others the middle finger.

Hopefully this hits home and you flip your support to the party of freedom and the constitution, and that's not the GOP,...

Rick Scott is the worst governor that ever happened to Flori-DUH.

I don't know where Flori-DUH is but Rick Scott is Florida's best governor in ages.