CMS Releases Medicare Physician Payment Data April 9, 2014 AMA, Medicare AMA, CMS, FOIA, Freedom of Information Act, Medicare, Medicare Physician Payment Data 0 Last night, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) publicly released Medicare physician payment data, which identifies 38 of the top-paid doctors practice in California. The spreadsheet files show each physician’s NPI, name and address, average charge and Medicare payment amounts, unique beneficiary counts, and other information for the various Medicare services they provide. Although both federal officials and advocacy groups say the information will increase transparency, they also caution against misinterpreting the data. CMS explained their decision to release the data in a letter to the American Medical Association (AMA). They cited that because of a recent court decision to reverse an injunction that previously prevented CMS from making the data available to the public, the agency received a large wave of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests for data in which CMS felt could not be handled on a case-by-case basis. Given the broad interest in viewing the data, the agency determined that it should be made public and accessible to all. Similar information has been available for several years on Medicare hospital payments. Unfortunately, the data posted by CMS is not subject to safeguards that protect physicians and patients from misuse of inaccurate or misleading data. Physicians were not given the opportunity to review their data for accuracy prior to their publication, and users of the data are not required to disclose the methodology they use in manipulating it. Furthermore, the posted data has significant limitations. A fact sheet is being circulated by the AMA to help promote responsible use of the data. The AMA is in the process of examining the data to identify any additional issues and is exploring opportunities to help physicians respond as individuals to inquiries they may receive about their personal data. Click here for AMA's most recent press statement on the data release. Comments are closed.
