Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Beverly Hills), whose office was contacted by at least two dozen doctors, called the transition to the new contractor "marred by missteps."
"I have been hearing from numerous doctors who have been waiting for months for hundreds of thousands of dollars in reimbursements," he said in a statement. "The delay in payments threatens to compromise patient care and provider solvency."
Palmetto has also been the subject of complaints from doctors in Nevada, which switched to the processing firm in August. The state has the fastest-growing Medicare population in the nation.
"If we're still dealing with this in January or February, Medicare patients are going to have serious access problems," said Larry Mathies, executive director of the Nevada State Medical Assn.
So far, Medicare patients have been largely insulated from the reimbursement fight, though they may have difficulty making new appointments. Some doctors, particularly those with specialties that get minimal Medicare reimbursements, say this could be the tipping point that makes them abandon their participation in Medicare altogether.
Dr. Gordon Wong, a solo family practitioner in Alhambra who moved from St. Louis in September, said he has not been approved as a Medicare provider even though he submitted his application in May. It took him more than a month of daily phone calls to Palmetto just to get a live person on the phone. When a customer service representative finally answered, she told him to call back because the computers were down.
"There are patients waiting to be seen, and I can't see them," Wong said. "Without completing my enrollments, I can't take Medicare patients."
Mike Barlow, a Palmetto vice president who oversees California, Nevada and Hawaii, said company officials are aware of the issues and have acted to address them. The company has hired and trained more people to field calls. Teams are in place to fast-track the most severe cases. This week, some Palmetto staffers were on site in Reno and Las Vegas trying to process complaints in person.
"We are accelerating to the extent that is humanly possible," Barlow said.
Palmetto has taken the brunt of the doctors' ire. The cover of Southern California Physician magazine that hit mailboxes this week features a huge picture of a cockroach, also called a Palmetto bug, with the word "INFESTATION!" stripped across the front. The article opens with one doctor telling Barlow, "I wish I had a tomato," as he stood before an angry crowd at a California Medical Assn. meeting last month.
