So typical of law makers who want the government to control everything. $186,000 is a tiny drop in the ocean and does not mean there is widespread fraud in Part D Medicare. It is the Drug Enforcement Agency's job to monitor the prescribing of controlled substances. If Florida had pharmacies that filled prescriptions for hydrocodone written by provider without valid DEA number, does that mean Medicare is the problem? It is an indictment of DEA failure. So to save a tiny drop, law makers pass a rule that shifts the responsibility of the DEA to the huge, inefficient bureaucracy of Medicare. In the process, the rule makes it a lot harder for Medicare recipients to have access to the better care from good providers.

The doctors I know that have withdrawn from Medicare participation have done so because they are FED UP with the Medicare bureaucracy and shrinking reimbursement. They are not going to bother filing a "opt-out" request. They don't anything to do with Medicare. It has nothing to do with their qualifications to write prescriptions.

Very few psychiatrists in my area take Medicare patients. The few that do are some of the worst doctors in the state. Their practices are mostly Medicare and Medicaid patients because anyone with insurance or cash won't go to them. So now Medicare will no longer allow us to select a good pdoc to see 4 times a year for medication management with our own money because their prescriptions won't be covered.

So disgusted with Obamacare. They make a rule that essentially amputates a leg to treat a little pimple.