Cancer clinics are turning away thousands of Medicare patients

[JBond]

I am saddened that the administration and congress could not find a way to cut 2.5% from the budget without resorting to these tactics. We are forced to pay into this Ponzi scheme and now the government is screwing everyone. Studying shrimp on treadmills, snails screwing, and taking multiple lavish vacations apparently is much more important.

Cancer clinics across the country have begun turning away thousands of Medicare patients, blaming the sequester budget cuts.

Oncologists say the reduced funding, which took effect for Medicare on April 1, makes it impossible to administer expensive chemotherapy drugs while staying afloat financially.

Patients at these clinics would need to seek treatment elsewhere, such as at hospitals that might not have the capacity to accommodate them.

“If we treated the patients receiving the most expensive drugs, we’d be out of business in six months to a year,” said Jeff Vacirca, chief executive of North Shore Hematology Oncology Associates in New York. “The drugs we’re going to lose money on we’re not going to administer right now.”

After an emergency meeting Tuesday, Vacirca’s clinics decided that they would no longer see one-third of their 16,000 Medicare patients.

“A lot of us are in disbelief that this is happening,” he said. “It’s a choice between seeing these patients and staying in business.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs...edicare-patients-blame-the-sequester/?hpid=z1