Wisconsin Medical Society Has Mixed Reaction To Release Of Medicare Data

The American Medical Association fought the recent release of Medicare data showing how much doctors are paid through the government health program. The Wisconsin Medical Society now says that such transparency is good, but would be helped with fresher, more comprehensive information.

A year ago the federal government released Medicare data showing a wide variation in how much hospitals charge for common procedures. Now, it’s releasing Medicare payments made to doctors in 2012. Jonathan Blum, deputy administrator with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, says taxpayers paying for Medicare deserve transparency and it may also boost government efforts to reduce fraud in the program.

“We want the public to help us with this effort,” said Blum. “We want the press. We want some outside researchers to also mine the data to find outliers.”

The Wisconsin Medical Society says releasing the data could help consumers understand health costs and help providers deliver better care. But the public may not take into account why some doctors get more Medicare money. The society’s CEO, Rick Abrams, says those doctors may provide more complex care or treat a lot of sick patients.

“We want our physicians, (our other) providers of care, to not only stand behind what they do but also take on the more difficult, albeit more expensive, cases,” said Abrams. “And quite frankly I’m very, very concerned that when we lead with the primary purpose being to ferret out fraud and abuse, it is going to create a chilling effect.”

The health care industry in the past few years has been moving toward more transparency. For instance, the Affordable Care Act requires pharmaceutical and medical device companies to report payments to doctors.