A 30 to 40 percent Medicare cut just hit the doctors who keep your local hospital running, and the policy meant to stop hospital monopolies is accelerating them instead. John Birkmeyer, president of the medical group at Sound Physicians and a former Dartmouth health services researcher, discusses the KevinMD article "Medicare practice expense cuts will hurt patients." You'll hear how CMS quietly slashed the practice expense portion of Medicare payments for the first time in 20 years, hitting independent hospitalists, ER doctors, and critical care groups with net cuts of 6 to 10 percent. You'll learn why CMS aimed at hospital-owned practices but instead pulled the rug from under the independent groups already operating at 2 to 4 percent margins, why rural hospitals will struggle hardest to staff, and how the resulting consolidation drives up prices for every patient. You'll also hear what CMS could fix in its 2027 rule and why physician advocacy now is the only correction available before more independent practices fold.

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