Here’s How Trump And Oz Can Fix Medicare
FORBES
Now that Dr. Mehmet Oz is in place to lead the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), he must quickly and directly tackle one of the greatest threats to preventative and individualized care in our country: Medicare Administrative Contractors (MACs). Oz’s decades of experience as a physician and cardiac surgeon will be critical.
MACs, under the purview of CMS, are private health insurance companies that administer Medicare claims. While their purpose is to “improve efficiency,” they’ve done everything but that. MACs serve as an unaccountable middleman between patients and doctors, driving up costs and worsening patient outcomes. They have repeatedly used their authority to make broad-sweeping decisions about coverage that prevent patients—especially seniors—from accessing vital preventative care such as genetic testing for cancer.