South Dakota solo practitioners' opinions about medicare

The Federal government has embarked upon a strategy designed to contain or reduce costs associated with the Medicare system. This strategy has had the twin goals of reducing hospital costs for the Medicare program and also reducing payments to physicians. More emphasis has been placed on the hospital costs, but physician costs are also being attacked. The Medicare system projects that about one out of eight hospitals across the country will soon be closed. How do South Dakota physicians feel about these changes being imposed by Medicare? One hundred and three solo practitioners were polled and the results strongly suggest that South Dakota's hospitals are at considerable risk of closing. The Medicare position of wanting to close hospitals is in direct opposition to the state policy of wishing to provide medical practitioners and hospitals to smaller towns.