THE MEDICARE TEAT

Data uncover nation’s top Medicare billers

That looks like doctors enjoy sucking to the tune of billions of dollars.

The government insurance program for older people paid nearly 4,000 physicians in excess of $1 million each in 2012, according to the new data. Those figures do not include what the doctors billed private insurance firms.
 

These doctors would rather not disclose the information claiming it violates their privacy? And that Americans may get the wrong idea about what’s going on?

Does that sound familiar? It usually comes from those who have something to hide.

The release of the information gives the public access for the first time to the billing practices of individual doctors nationwide. Consumer groups and news outlets have pressured Medicare to release the data for years. And in doing so Wednesday, Medicare officials said they hope the data will expose fraud, inform consumers and lead to improvements in care.

The American Medical Association and other physician groups have resisted the data release, arguing that the information violates doctor privacy and that the public may misconstrue details about individual doctors.