The OIG’s Work Plan (pdf) for fiscal year 2012 outlines projects OIG will continue or begin investigating in the new fiscal year. The OIG plans to review the extent to which physicians are opting out of Medicare; whether specific regions of the country have a higher proportion of physicians opting out of Medicare; and its potential impact on beneficiaries.
As part of this specific investigation, the OIG will also review whether those physicians who have opted out of Medicare continue to submit claims to the federal healthcare program.
Research published in the Archives of Internal Medicine suggests the percentage of physicians accepting new Medicare patients has steadily declined from 2005 (95.5 percent) to 2008 (92.9 percent), according to an American Medical News report.
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