On Medicare And Scorned By the Docs

Medicare reimburses doctors for services to patients based on a national fee schedule. Each year Medicare updates these payments using a formula required by law. The formula was designed to prevent spending from exceeding target rates by reducing physician payments in a subsequent year if the targets were surpassed. That happened in 2002, but in every year since, Congress has intervened and temporarily suspended the reduction in payments. Last year Congress not only delayed a cut in rates but also granted a small increase for six months. Because of the backlog of cuts, if Congress fails to act by July 1, Medicare payments to doctors will be reduced by 10.6 percent -- which could make it even tougher to get accepted as a new Medicare patient.

But enough of the big picture. The question is, what can you do if you have trouble finding a new doctor as a Medicare patient?

Talk to friends and neighbors or call the medical society, said Wilson.

"If you've made contact with one physician, then say, 'Do you know a primary care physician' or whoever else you're looking for," he advised.

Kuhn suggested calling a local hospital and asking for its referral service. He also suggested taking a look at Medicare health plans with networks of physicians.

Should you avoid moving in retirement for fear of not being able to find doctors? No, said Kuhn. "A lot of people move to retirement areas, and a lot of people like to live in those areas -- including doctors."

Join Martha M. Hamilton and J. Mark Iwry, principal of the Retirement Security Project and a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, for an online chat at noon Tuesday at washintonpost.com.