Claude, Texas - It's one of the most hotly contested issues among our area's oldest residents... And now there may be an answer to problems with medicare coverage.
That answer can be found at the clinic in Claude, along with about half a dozen other rural clinics across the panhandle... It's because these rural facilities are not being affected by the impending medicare cuts.
Nurse Practioner and owner of the Claude Family Medical Clinic Janet Bilyeu says, "rural health clinics are paid through Medicare Part A. They're Part A funded. So Medicare Part B is where most physicians offices are funded. The 21% cut affected Medicare Part B and not Part A."
That means, at a time when many of those funded by Medicare Part A are being forced to drastically cut services or stop taking medicare patients because they can't swallow the 21% cuts... These rural clinics are accepting them.
And those patients are coming in at record rates... Bilyeu says she's seeing more people than ever call and ask if they have room for new patients... Mostly folks from Amarillo, who can't find a primary care doctor here who accepts Medicare.
Because rural health clinics are few and far between to begin with, places like the clinic in Claude actually receive extra money from the government to take medicare patients.
It's part of an incentive plan to keep these rural clinics open in areas that need them the most.
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After over a century of being banned, gay youth are now allowed to be a part of the Boy Scouts. But gay adult leaders and parents are still not permitted to participate.
After over a century of being banned, gay youth are now allowed to be a part of the Boy Scouts. But gay adult leaders and parents are still not permitted to participate.
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