Cancer clinics are turning away thousands of Medicare patients. Blame the sequester.

[Fire Walk With Me]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/04/03/cancer-clinics-are-turning-away-thousands-of-medicare-patients-blame-the-sequester/

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.”

snip

Legislators meant to partially shield Medicare from the automatic budget cuts triggered by the sequester, limiting the program to a 2 percent reduction — a fraction of the cuts seen by other federal programs.

But oncologists say the cut is unexpectedly damaging for cancer patients because of the way those treatments are covered.

[SDjack]

1. The Republican House is a "death panel". nt

[madrchsod]

2. oh.... who cares?

they are going to die of something are`t they.......

my hospital bill is 285,000 and counting. so far medicare has`t refused to pay anything. i`m fortunate that it was a heart problem. heart procedures are now simple and well tested for outcomes compared to treating cancer with very expensive drugs and experimental procedures.