The Wall Street Journal reports that lawmakers seek to make public what physicians earn through Medicare, which would overturn a 32-year-old law that bars the public from the data. The rationale behind the move is to identify fraud and waste in the federal program. An excerpt:
Currently, the government is effectively barred from releasing how much money any individual doctor earns from Medicare by the 1979 injunction. That injunction stemmed from a lawsuit filed by the Florida Medical Association and the American Medical Association, the doctors’ trade group.
The Carter administration had sought to publish a list of the annual Medicare reimbursements to all doctors. The AMA sued to block the move, and a Florida court ruled in favor of the physicians’ privacy interest. That ruling remains in force.
In a written response to questions from the Journal, AMA President Cecil B. Wilson said, “The American Medical Association has zero tolerance for Medicare fraud, and studies have demonstrated that physicians are not a significant source of Medicare fraud.” Noting that Medicare is policed by the Justice Department and others, he added, “Physicians, like all Americans, have the right to privacy regarding their personal financial information, and courts have repeatedly upheld this right.”
In Medicaid news, state health officials are attempting to cut the budget while maintaining as many services as possible. The Texas Tribune reports state lawmakers seek to broaden Medicaid managed care to hospitals, currently exempt, and retain $1 billion in federal health care funds. However, managed care hospitals could be disqualified from receiving “Upper Payment Limit” federal funding.
