Medicare : focus on physician practice patterns can lead to greater program efficiency : report to Congressional committees.

Bibliographic Details
Corporate Authors:	United States. Government Accountability Office, ProQuest (Firm)
Format:	eBook
Language:	English
Published:	[Washington, D.C.] : United States Government Accountability Office, [2007]
Series:	U.S. Congressional Research.
Subjects:	Medicare > Economic aspects. Medical fees > United States. Electronic books.
Online Access:	Connect to the full text of this electronic book

Table of Contents:

Letter
Results in brief
Background
Physicians who treated a disproportionate share of overly expensive patients were found in each of 12 areas studied
Health care purchasers used physician profiling results to encourage efficient medical practice
CMS has tools available to profile physicians for efficiency, but may need some additional authorities to use results in ways similar to other purchasers
Conclusions
Recommendation for executive action
Agency and professional association comments and our evaluation
Appendix I. Methodology for identifying physicians with a disproportionate share of overly expensive beneficiaries
Appendix II. Health care purchaser program characteristics
Appendix III. Distribution of physicians by their proportion of overly expensive beneficiaries by metropolitan area
Appendix IV. Comments from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services
Appendix V GAO contact and staff acknowledgments.