Senate Bill would post every physician’s Medicare billing data on Internet
Aiming to curtail Medicare fraud, Senator Charles Grassley (R, Iowa) introduced a program integrity measure before a Senate Finance Committee hearing on Medicare and Medicaid fraud on March 2nd.
The bill in part would require the Department of Health and Human Services by the end of 2012 start publishing Medicare claims and payment data on the website USAspending.gov. n prohibited by a court ruling for more than 30 years. But some lawmakers recently stepped up their efforts to lift the ban and bring Medicare billing data to light to prevent fraud.
By increasing transparency, the government hopes to prevent billions Medicare and Medicaid Fraud each year. Senator Grassley said, the “more transparency about billing and payments increases public understanding of where tax dollars go,” Grassley said. “The bad actors might be dissuaded if they knew their actions were subject to the light of day.”