In the meantime, Medicare is trying to crack down on habitual overcharging by some doctors.
The Washington Post: Doctors Cut From Medicare Advantage Networks Struggle With What To Tell Patients
Thousands of primary-care doctors and specialists across the country have been terminated from privately run Medicare Advantage plans, sparking a battle between doctors who say patient care is being threatened and insurers that insist they have to reduce costs and streamline their operations. Medical associations, which describe the dismissals as the largest in the program's history, say the cuts are forcing some patients to leave their doctors in mid-treatment (Cha, 1/25).
Earlier, related KHN story: Judge's Medicare Advantage Order Could Have National Impact (Jaffe, 12/6/13).
The New York Times: Doctors Abusing Medicare Face Fines And Expulsion
The Obama administration is cracking down on doctors who repeatedly overcharge Medicare patients, and for the first time in more than 30 years the government may disclose how much is paid to individual doctors treating Medicare patients. Marilyn B. Tavenner, the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said that "recalcitrant providers" would face civil fines and could be expelled from Medicare and other federal health programs. In a directive that took effect on Jan. 15 but received little attention, Ms. Tavenner indicated that the agency was losing patience with habitual offenders. She ordered new steps to identify and punish such doctors (Pear, 1/26).
And, for patients: