How much is your doctor paid by Medicare and for what services, how does he compare with peers? Who does she refer patients too? Has he been paid by a drug company? What drugs does she most often prescribe? What is his average fee per service? Are their any sanctions against her? This and more information is available at Treatment Tracker.
Treatment Tracker
The Doctors and Services in Medicare Part B
By Lena Groeger, Charles Ornstein, and Ryann Grochowski Jones, ProPublica, May 15, 2014
Medicare recently released, for the first time, details on 2012 payments to individual doctors and other health professionals serving the 46 million seniors and disabled in its Part B program. Part B covers services as varied as office visits, ambulance mileage, lab tests, and the doctor’s fee for open-heart surgery. Use this tool to find and compare providers.
Office visits are reimbursed on a scale of 1-5, with 5 being the most intensive and costly. Mental health professionals bill Medicare for level 5 visits most frequently compared to other specialties, with cancer doctors following close behind.
Here’s the breakdown of office visits by specialty (for patients seen at least once before).
via Treatment Tracker.
QUINNSCOMMENTARY 
I had no idea how much Medicare was paying until I had an accident and asked for the billing copies. The costs are unbelievable high for the services obtained of which amounted to probably a five minute visit for over $450.plus x rays over $1,000. (My co-pay was $35.00 on my plan. There definitely should be a limit of costs billed to Medicare by Specialist doctors (In my case it was Orthopedics with a broken arm) That is way too high for Medicare to have to pay. If limits are set for these visits, not only for time spent with patient but actually what was done, Medicare would be not charged so much. In my case first a primary doctor, then the Orthopedic, then a Surgeon (services of which I did not need that the Orthopedic could have addressed) Again, had I not asked for copies of the bill I never would have known what they are charging Medicare. Other people probably don’t realize it either since they don’t receive the actual bill.
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The information on what is billed, allowed and paid by Medicare is shown on the Explanation of Benefits sent to Medicare beneficiaries once every three months. The amount allowed and paid is a relatively small percentage of the amount billed by the doctor; most often less than half.
Dick
Blog http://www.quinnscommentary.com Twitter @quinnscomments
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Reblogged this on heandshe.
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