I found this letter to NYT, published almost 20 years ago. As far as I know, it's all still pretty much the same.
nytimes.com
October 6, 1990
Medicare Maximums Were Fixed in 1984
Contrary to ''Medicare's Woes Found Worsening'' (front page, Sept. 6), under Medicare, physician fees are already limited. Physicians cannot choose to charge Medicare beneficiaries whatever they charge non-Medicare patients. In 1984, the maximum allowable charge a physician could bill a Medicare patient was frozen, and since then, only minimal increases have been premitted. And in recent years, many previously allowed fees have been reduced.
Physicians who do not accept Medicare assignment must base their bills to Medicare patients on the maximum actual allowable charge set by the Health Care Financing Administration. Those charges were set in 1987 and are based on charges from 1984. Generally, they are significantly less than what physicians today charge non-Medicare patients. Although the costs of practicing medicine have increased greatly over the last 10 years, what physicians are permitted to bill patients is severely limited.
MICHAEL H. GRIECO, M.D.
President
New York County Medical Society
New York, Sept. 17, 1990
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