"Heart and cancer doctors will get a smaller fee cut next year from Medicare, the U.S. government program for the elderly, than the Obama administration first sought in a move to shift money to family physicians," Bloomberg reports. Earlier this year, Medicare officials said they would cut 10 percent of payments for the two specialties. Now, they plan on making the reductions over four years, instead.
"The administration argued that the lower reimbursements for specialists would make more dollars available for lower-paid non-specialists who can focus on preventing expensive, chronic illnesses. That would tame the growth in medical costs, one goal of President Barack Obama's effort to remake the U.S. system of care. Under yesterday's plan, family doctors and nurse practitioners would get half the proposed increase." A lobbyist for cardiologists said he expected many heart doctors to flee the specialty that the cuts would lead to their "slow death."