Doctors and medical groups who say the public can't understand the newly released Medicare data because it's "out of context" should look at the latest edition of On Science Blogs by Tabitha M. Powledge.
There they will find the context. Plenty of reporters and news organizations are doing a good job of providing the context that Americans need to understand the data.
Here's a case in point, recounted by Powledge:
A Business Day post by Denise Grady and Sheri Fink shows how the data can mislead. One example: a family medicine physician at the University of Michigan Health Services got $7.58 million in 2012 for more than 207,000 patients. Unbelievable, right?
Except, as it turns out, the doc directs a Medicare project involving 1600 primary care physicians, and the payments to them go through her office. So I did the math, which works out to well under $5K for each doc, with an average of 130 patients each for the year. At $36.62 per patient.
Many doctors worried that the public would think the Medicare claims data reflected what they earned, and I briefly made that assumption myself, I confess. It took me 10 minutes–maybe 5–to figure out that that was not the case. As in the case of the Michigan physician, much of the money is passed through to cover expenses, supplies, and overhead.
But let's not let "context" entirely absolve Medicare claims recipients. The doctor who earned the most–almost $21 million–owns a private jet. Apparently not all of that money went to carpet cleaning and light bulbs.
The American Medical Association was so concerned about the public misinterpreting the data that it fought in court to block the release for 35 years–until last week. I was mystified that this angle didn't get more coverage, and Powledge is, too. Which makes me mystified all over again.
Where is the story on the AMA?
-Paul Raeburn
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