CMS has had the physician utilization and billing data for decades and yet who bills for what services and who is paid what is somehow now startling information?
Is it a revelation that charges vary by state as do some medical protocols? We are shocked that states with higher costs of living have higher medical costs? Is it amazing that a physician would use a high cost medication over less expensive alternatives when Medicare pays him a percentage of the cost of the drug?
What has Medicare been doing with the data all along if not fighting fraud and abuse? The fact the data can be made public proves what, that CMS has not been doing its job?
Here we go again pointing the finger in the wrong direction.
If you are on Medicare, I guess it’s all up to you now. You have the data so start asking your doctor how his recommendations for your care vary from his peers in North Dakota. Be sure he receives no more than about 30% of what he bills as reimbursement.
The hype surrounding this data dump is nothing more than an attempt to deflect the shortcomings of Medicare claim administration and to put a positive spin on the notion of consumerism in health care.
While a patient has an obligation not to participate in fraudulent schemes, only the plan administrator has the ability to spot patterns of over utilization, potential fraud, to alert providers to their outlier practices and more.
What does it matter what a given physician was paid by Medicare, if the payments were legitimate? And if they are not, CMS is charged with doing something about it. Better we should learn what former members of Congress are paid as lobbyist after leaving office.
To expect the press to vet all this on an informed basis and to now expect Medicare beneficiaries to police medical care deliver billing practices serves whose interests?
QUINNSCOMMENTARY 