"Look at what the Mayo Clinic can do," said the president in September. "It's got the best quality and the lowest cost of just about any system in the country. We want to help the whole country learn from what Mayo is doing."
The president is getting his wish, but not in the way he might have wanted. Two weeks ago, the folks at the Mayo operation in Glendale, Ariz. notified their 3,000-plus Medicare patients that they would need to find care elsewhere.
Last year the Mayo Clinic lost $840 million on its Medicare patients because Medicare reimbursements cover only 50% of the cost of primary care for this population. The other Mayo locations are expected to follow suit. In reporting the story, the Wall Street Journal noted that, "…only governments can lose that much money and pretend they don't have to change."
