Extended Medicare safety net review report
These fee increases have resulted in considerable leakage of government benefits towards providers’ incomes, rather than reduced costs for patients. A conservative estimate is that, for every dollar spent on the EMSN in 2008, providers received 43 cents and patients received 57 cents. However, for Medicare services that are associated with high out-of-pocket costs (that is greater than $50), this estimate is as high as 78 cents for providers and 22 cents for patients. Services in this group include those associated with assisted reproductive technologies as well as procedures to treat varicose veins and vision impairments.
