Neurologic & Orthopedic Hospital Blog — Drs. Cerullo & Sheinkop, Chicago

Medicare Reimbursement Declines for Prosthetics

Everything is going up but our reimbursement from Medicare and the insurance industry. In 1992, MEDICARE reimbursement for hip replacement was $1,697; in 1997, $1,583; in 2002 it was $1,452; and in 2007, it was $1,136. All this time, the expense of practicing orthopedics continues to go up with increasing cost to the point that an orthopedic surgeon must either work at 150% or stop working. Yet at the Neurologic & Orthopedic Hospital of Chicago, we have determined not to pass that financial burden along to our patients. Unlike other area orthopedic surgeons who have stopped accepting Medicare reimbursement and who require an out-of-pocket fee of $10,000 to $15,000—contracting out of Medicare—we at NOHC have determined that your access to orthopedic care should not be means tested but rather treated as an inherent right of citizenship. Yet at NOHC, we offer contemporary designed prosthetic choices to match your individual needs or requests through a minimally invasive surgical exposure. At the same time your hospital stay is customized from same day to a full recovery process depending on individual needs and medical indications. Our patients are introduced to a rapid recovery rehabilitation process. All the while overseen by the surgeon who introduced minimally invasive surgery and rapid recovery with a short hospital stay to the Midwest in 2001.

As a private specialty hospital, those involved in hip and knee replacement at the Neurologic and Orthopedic Hospital of Chicago are proud to have played a role and to continually play a role in pioneering new advances with implant technology. At the same time, we are cognizant of the marketing initiatives within the community by others trying to personally gain from our innovation. The NOHC orthopedic surgeon is a professional who treats each patient as an individual; we refuse to become an assembly line treating our patient as a commodity so as to improve our revenue stream.

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