With no deal in sight on the sequestration cuts, Becker’s Hospital Review asked seven health care leaders what the impact of the spending cuts will be on the health care industry. Here is a selection from their responses.
“Although Medicare [beneficiaries are] not affected, physician fees will be reduced by 2 percent across the board… [This] limits the ability of physicians to obtain the expansion of staff and infrastructure to take care of patients.”
“Yes, sequestration will have an impact on the conduct of such research… Nevertheless, hospitals doing this research certainly can take steps to mitigate the financial impact a reduction in federally funded trials may cause. They can achieve that by ensuring their portfolio of clinical research also contains a good mix of trials funded by pharmaceutical and devices companies.”
“NIH spending decreases — on top of a decade of erosion in funding — will not only contribute to the loss of the next generation of scientists, they will delay medical progress that could help millions of patients and their families… Cutting federal funding that supports doctor training at teaching hospitals will exacerbate looming shortages of physicians.”
