Medicare communications with physicians

Citation

(2002), "Medicare communications with physicians", International Journal of Health Care Quality Assurance, Vol. 15 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijhcqa.2002.06215dab.002

Medicare communications with physicians

Medicare communications with physiciansKeywords: US doctors, Inaccurate information, AMA, US Senate

A new report, Medicare: Communications with Physicians Can Be Improved, from the General Accounting Office (GAO), shows inaccuracies and problems with information supplied by Medicare to doctors in the USA. The report shows that information provided to physicians is often out of date, inaccurate, incomplete and loaded with legal jargon. It also reports that Medicare customer service representatives could answer correctly only 15 percent of GAO sample questions.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) acknowledge that information and resources shared between CMS and carriers need to be vastly improved.

The President of the American Medical Association, Richard Corlin, said: "We thank the GAO for its excellent report. Medicare holds physicians responsible for deciphering more than 110,000 pages of policies, rules and regulations. Physicians are held to standards of accuracy that the program's carriers cannot begin to meet themselves."

The bipartisan Medicare Regulatory and Contracting Reform Act of 2001, which passed the House last year 408-0, includes a provision whereby Medicare and its carriers would be required to give physicians clear, concise and accurate answers to their questions. Dr Corlin said that the AMA looks forward to working with the US Senate to make sure that this bill becomes law.