Sens. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) plan to cosponsor legislation requiring HHS to publicize Medicare payments for physicians, which have been closed to the public for about 35 years, according to a report by The Hill.
The two senators were apparently unaware of their mutual interest in the issue until a Senate Finance Committee hearing on Wednesday morning. “I’m very hopeful that we can have a bipartisan bill on this because I think this could create a very substantial disincentive for some of these multi-million dollar rip-offs,” Sen. Wyden said.
The Wall Street Journal recently sued HHS to open up the physician payment information, then agreed to receive a small piece of the payment database containing 5 percent of providers. Forbidden from identifying individual physicians, the newspaper is using the information to determine patterns in fraudulent payments.
Physician payment information has been under wraps since the 1970s, when the AMA successfully sued to make it confidential. The AMA reiterated its stance recently. “Physicians, like all Americans, have the right to privacy regarding their personal financial information, and courts have repeatedly upheld this right,” the organization said in a statement.
Read The Hill report on physician payments.
Read more coverage of efforts to reveal physician payments from Medicare:
– Dow Jones Sues to Open Physician Payment Database, Look for Fraud
– AMA Responds to Wall Street Journal Lawsuit on Physician Payment Data
