Hey Doc, Will This Hurt?

An interesting fact…when Medicare was created in 1965, the allowable fee for a doctor to charge was the standard or normal fee for a procedure in the area that the doctor practiced in. No dollar amounts were stipulated. If the majority of doctors in Poughkeepsie charged $200 for removing an ingrown toenail, then Medicare would pay $200, no questions asked. Some doctors figured out the obvious…raise the normal fee; and they did. And they kept doing that. Did you know that doctors make a lot more money (relatively) in 2005 than they did in 1965?