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Alec MacGillis had a nice Washington Post piece on the Mayo Clinic’s low provision of care to Medicaid patients and the even more dicey policies of Mayo’s Glendale, Arizona site to stop accepting Medicare primary care patients. If Arizonans want Mayo primary care, they will have to pay an annual $250 fee, plus a pretty stiff $175 to $400 per visit. Mayo will still provide these patients more complex--and lucrative--procedures.
As MacGillis details, 5 percent of Mayo’s Rochester Minnesota patients are on Medicaid. The Medicaid caseload is 29 percent at the other local hospital. Mayo will no longer accept Nebraska or Montana Medicaid patients, though it is arranging for some currently receiving care.
Mayo receives much praise for its high-quality care. Some effusive praise has come from the President of the United States. That praise is well-deserved. So the above paragraphs should give one special pause. Mayo and other flagship institutions provide excellent, sometimes surprisingly cost-effective care. Yet how should we think about these institutions in light of the reality that many choose in varying degrees to channel their services towards a relatively privileged slice of the American population?
Continue Reading to see how this story illustrates two final points
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