Medicare Moves to Tighten Oversight of Prescribers
Via Pro Publica:
Ten years after Medicare’s vaunted prescription drug program was signed into law, the Obama administration and Congress are re-evaluating whether it does enough to stop inappropriate prescribing and fraud by physicians.
Until now, the program’s top priority has been getting drugs into the hands of its elderly and disabled enrollees, earning it high praise from consumers and politicians. But after a series of critical articles this year by ProPublica, Medicare is now putting in place changes that would give greater priority to targeting fraud and curbing waste.
In particular, Medicare has told senators that it plans to begin referring physicians with troubling prescribing patterns in the program, known as Part D, to their states’ medical boards for possible disciplinary action. That was one of the solutions proposed by a group of experts consulted by ProPublica earlier this year.
Medicare’s failure to keep watch over Part D has enabled doctors to prescribe massive quantities of harmful medications, has wasted billions on needlessly expensive drugs and has exposed the program to rampant fraud, ProPublica found. More than 36 million people have drug coverage from Medicare at a cost to taxpayers of $62 billion last year.
Medicare’s problems largely stem from the fact that it hasn’t rigorously analyzed data on physician prescribing.
Source/more: Pro Publica