Do not believe the Republicans ranting that Mayo Clinic opposes health reform or that it has 'stopped taking Medicare patients.' Mayo has its positions posted on its website (link below fold).
The detail of this post lays out the basics of Mayo's positions, but in summary, Mayo favors 1) universal insurance, 2) changes to the Medicare payment formulas, 2) payment based on quality not quantity of services provided.
Mayo does not support a public option based on traditional Medicare rates (which underpaid them categorically compared to other parts of the country). However, the official line is that it would depend on how a public plan was defined. Mayo considers a co-op to be a "public plan."
Here is the link to the website where Mayo posts its policy positions.
Here is the link to Mayo's Healthcare Repair site, where it posts articles of interest to the health policy debate, links to its policy positions, and news about events.
Mayo's positions. If the provisions for pay-for-value (quality over quantity), care coordination based on "accountable care organizations" and "the medical home," comparative effectiveness research (formerly known as "evidence based medicine") and end-of-life counseling are the final bill, this will be in part due to Mayo's efforts, working closely with Senator Baucus, Senator Maria Cantwell and Senator Amy Klobuchar (and I am sure others) in support of these measures. On the financial side, Mayo's finance people have been in touch with Peter Orzag, in particular with regard to the benefits of examining regional practice variation, as in the Dartmouth Atlas.
It is well known that Mayo has also supported the recognition that the midwest and western states practice medicine in ways that make them more efficient compared to the south (where for-profits are strong), or the northeast (where academic medical centers, and in recent years their networks, have a strong presence). However, there are examples all over the country where integrated group practices like Mayo exist and provide higher quality, lower cost care than other approaches. Mayo's position has been that there are benefits and cost-savings to be gained from adopting some of the structural and practice characteristics of the integrated group practice model.
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Regarding the concern over Mayo "dropping Medicare patients". The Medicaid patients involved are those outside Mayo's primary six state service area. The case of the Medicare patients in Arizona apparently has more to do with Mayo focusing on specialty care in that area. The total number of patients involved is less than 1/2 of one percentof Mayo's patient population. Forty percent of Mayo's Rochester patients are Medicare and there are no plans to stop taking them!
Finally, it's true that Mayo sees few Medicaid patients in Rochester. There is another health system in Rochester, Olmsted Medical Group, that takes the brunt of the Medicaid population. This system is an award-winning secondary tier health system with close ties to Mayo. Complex cases, specialty services, and of course all Trauma 1 cases can and typically are taken to Mayo. A semi-trailer truck marked "Mayo Clinic Radiology" is routinely parked outside the OMG clinic to do some of the more exotic imaging exams (OMG does the basic exams). I go to OMG and take my kids there for most routine care for the simple reason that the waiting times are shorter than at Mayo -- and it's easier to park!
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So, "them's the fax" as far as I know them. Despite giving it a try I've learned it's impossible to slow down incorrect info on the web; it spreads too fast and people know they will not be held accountable for misusing information. I imagine a day when it might be possible to submit a correction or comment to a misuse of a post or article that would apply anywhere it was referenced. Maybe that can be on my personal political agenda next after HCR. That is, after establishing a national "no mail list" for marketing catalogs. Not exactly on anyone else's priority list, but you never know.