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The Straight Story

(48,121 posts)
Fri Jan 17, 2014, 03:52 PM Jan 2014

Details of Medicare Payments to Doctors Finally Go Public after 35 Years


Details of Medicare Payments to Doctors Finally Go Public after 35 Years

The federal government is finally going public with information about Medicare payments made to doctors—an issue that’s been lingering since the Carter administration.

In 1979, a federal court ordered the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare (predecessor to the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees Medicare) to not release data on how much physicians earned under the healthcare program.

The injunction remained in place for decades, even after the group Consumers Checkbook sued in 2006 under the Freedom of Information Act to obtain data on procedures performed by doctors who treat Medicare beneficiaries.

But the information firewall began to crumble a few years later when The Wall Street Journal sued the department to have the injunction overturned. This legal challenge was successful, resulting in the injunction being lifted last year by a federal court.

As a result, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced this week that it would begin releasing data on payments to individual physicians in the Medicare program.

http://www.allgov.com/news/controversies/details-of-medicare-payments-to-doctors-finally-go-public-after-35-years-140117?news=852193
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