On Wednesday, April 9, 2014, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services made a historic release of the most detailed data that it ever has on procedures billed and payments received by each individual physician. Historically, the AMA has been opposed to such a release, as it was seen as a potential for privacy violations or misuse/misinterpretation of the data. According to CMS and the DHHS, this new release demonstrates an effort to “make our health care system more transparent, affordable, and accountable.”
Patients (and anyone else who desires) can simply type in the provider’s last name (specialty/zip code, optional) and be presented with a list of all of the top procedures that the provider billed in 2012, the average fee at which the provider billed the procedure, and the amount of money the provider received. [Remember – this only applies to providers that billed Medicare in 2012.]
As a billing service, we want to keep all of our clients aware so that they may review for themselves the data that the public (and potential/current patients) can now view.
The New York Times has a website that simplifies the search to a few key strokes of the doctor’s last name. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/04/09/health/medicare-doctor-database.html.
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