So what are these people supposed to do?
Elderly find Medicare doctors scarce in Austin
When Sheila McIntire moved to Austin from Cleveland two years ago, she was shocked to call doctor after doctor and get the same message: They weren’t taking new Medicare patients.
“It’s very frightening for elderly people if you come here and have no referrals,” McIntire said.
As days grew to weeks, she became terrified. It took McIntire six weeks to find a geriatric psychiatrist.
She and her husband, Dean, searched even longer for a family doctor. It wasn’t until they saw a newspaper ad for Dr. Donovan Smith, who was new to Austin and building her practice, that their hunt ended happily.
“When I saw her, all I wanted to do was hug her and say ‘thank you so much,’ ” said McIntire, now 70.
A 2006 Texas Medical Association survey found that more Texas doctors are limiting the number of patients they will take on Medicare, the federal program for the elderly and disabled. Some doctors are not accepting any new Medicare patients, mainly because of declining reimbursements and threatened fee cuts.
Shouldn’t we be fixing this system. If doctors won’t accept Medicare then something is broken. We are an aging population and we should be able to expect to find medical care in the years we need it most.
