HHS Appeals Court Ruling That Would Have Required Release Of Medicare Physician Claims Data

Main Category: Litigation / Medical Malpractice
Also Included In: Medicare / Medicaid / SCHIP;  Primary Care / General Practice
Article Date: 24 Oct 2007 - 7:00 PDT

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HHS on Oct. 19 filed notice to appeal an August court decision that requires the department to release Medicare physician claims data, Consumers CHECKBOOK/Center for the Study of Services announced on Monday, CQ HealthBeat reports (CQ HealthBeat, 10/22).

On Aug. 22, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled that HHS must release Medicare physician claims data for Illinois, Maryland, Virginia, Washington state and Washington, D.C. In the case, Consumers' CHECKBOOK filed a lawsuit to obtain access to the data. HHS argued that the release of the data would violate the privacy of physicians. However, the court rejected that argument because Medicare claims account for only a portion of the incomes of physicians. Consumers' CHECKBOOK plans to post the data online for public use (Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, 8/27).

Robert Krughoff, president of Consumers' CHECKBOOK, said, "We are disappointed that HHS is fighting the release of information that would be of such clear value to consumers," adding, "We will continue, on appeal, to fight for release of information consumers deserve."

In a statement, HHS spokesperson Kevin Schweers said that the department is "fully committed to making available as much Medicare data as allowable by law." He added, "Unfortunately, in the case at hand, two federal courts interpret the law differently, and we're caught in the middle until that dispute is settled. When that day does come, it'll be a day too late as far as we're concerned" (CQ HealthBeat, 10/22).

Reprinted with kind permission from http://www.kaisernetwork.org. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at http://www.kaisernetwork.org/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork.org, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation© 2005 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.

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