Blame the Docs : Errors Cloud Medicare Payment Data
▻http://www.medpagetoday.com/PublicHealthPolicy/Medicare/45255
Two doctors top the list of emergency medicine specialists in the Medicare doctor payment data released last week, with reimbursements over $1 million each.
But it turns out both doctors are vascular surgeons who identified themselves as the wrong specialty. And it’s not just the “case of the mistaken specialties.” Other physicians report outdated data, missing records, and different addresses.
Experts say the errors are manageable and mostly not Medicare’s fault.
“I think it’s reliably accurate, whenever there’s an inaccuracy there’s always an explanation,” said Charles Ornstein, senior reporter for ProPublica, which produced the Dollars for Docs project based on similar Medicare data. “When they’re wrong, it’s often on doctors themselves or their practices in the way they do their billing. Doctors are notorious for not keeping their NPPES [National Plan and Provider Enumeration System] updated.”
whenever there’s an inaccuracy there’s always an explanation
Bienvenu dans le monde des données…
On notera que le titre parle d’error là où l’expert parle d’inaccuracy.