Medicare Cost Data Analysis
1
Executive Summary
Data analysis was performed on the recently published Medicare
Provider Utilization and Payment Data for (a) Physicians and Other suppliers
and (b) Inpatient. A lot of news
articles have been written in the past about the huge variability in billed
charges among regional hospitals and how some physicians are getting reimbursed
millions of dollars by Medicare. The
current data analysis tries to shine a broader light on the data and provide
the general public a narrative of what the published data tells us. The data analyses will be expanded over time
as time permits and based on comments from readers.
- The data analysis found that at least 60 doctors have had Medicare reimbursements above $5 million in calendar year 2012. The top doctor had $21 mil in Medicare reimbursements. All of these reimbursements may have been legitimate but then it begs the question of how a single doctor can be so productive and efficient. Are these the super-doctors that the medical field should emulate? Are the taxpayers and retirees getting full value for their money at these levels of reimbursements?
- Ophthalmology is the second highest doctor category in terms of Medicare reimbursements, after Internal Medicine. It is even higher than Cardiology. What are the common ophthalmological procedures done on retirees other than cataract operations? If ophthalmological procedures are that expensive, then we are not hearing enough ads in the general society about preventive measures on eye health like the way we hear about healthy heart.
