Medicare begins posting physician price information online

Officials say health consumers can use the data to shop around for care.

By David Glendinning, AMNews staff. Dec. 18, 2006.

Washington -- As promised, Medicare officials have started making public the prices the program pays physicians for certain services -- information they say has remained largely unknown to many patients.

As part of a price and quality transparency initiative that President Bush launched earlier this year, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services in November posted online payment information for selected services performed in physician offices and hospital outpatient departments. Medicare posted similar data for inpatient hospitals in June and ambulatory surgical centers in August.

For the physician office setting, as a starting point, federal officials chose 19 commonly performed services and listed the average prices for each Medicare locality in all of the states. In some states, the program pays the same no matter where the patient receives the care. In others, the amount can differ depending on where the physician is located.

CMS also listed the number of the services in each area in a year, which could serve as an indication that physicians have more experience with the procedures and thus might be providing higher quality care.

The agency posted payment information for more than 70 other procedures usually performed by physicians in settings other than the office. The numbers correspond to what Medicare pays the lead doctor alone, not the facility or the anesthesiologist who might be required.