Release of Medicare doctor payments shows some huge payouts

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http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-medicare-doctor-pay-20140409,0,6562889.story



Some physicians received more than $10 million in 2012, data show, but the government and doctors warn the figures can be misleading.

Release of Medicare doctor payments shows some huge payouts
By Chad Terhune, Noam N. Levey and Doug Smith
April 8, 2014, 9:00 p.m.

Ending decades of secrecy, Medicare is showing what the giant healthcare program for seniors pays individual doctors, and the figures reveal that more than a dozen physicians received in excess of $10 million each in 2012.

The Obama administration is releasing a detailed account Wednesday of $77 billion in government payouts to more than 880,000 healthcare providers nationwide that year. The release of payment records involving doctors has been legally blocked since 1979, but recent court rulings removed those obstacles. No personal information on patients is disclosed.

The two highest-paid doctors listed in the Medicare data are already under government review because of suspected improper billing. They include an ophthalmologist in the retiree haven of West Palm Beach, Fla., who topped the list by taking in more than $26 million to treat fewer than 900 patients. That is 61 times the average Medicare payout of $430,000 for an ophthalmologist.

A Florida cardiologist received $23 million in Medicare payments in 2012, nearly 80 times the average amount for that specialty. One California doctor was in the top 10 nationwide: a Newport Beach oncologist who was paid $11 million that year.