Medicare doctor payments sometimes pit specialties against each other

In other Medicare news, legislation has been introduced in the Senate to open a Medicare claims database.

The Wall Street Journal: Dividing The Medicare Pie Pits Doctor Against Doctor
One of the biggest disputes in the Relative Value Scale Update Committee came in 2005, when members clashed over primary-care groups' push for increases in the payments for doctor office visits, which are among the most commonly-billed Medicare services (Mathews, 4/7).

The Wall Street Journal: Senators Push To Open Database On Medicare
Two senators have introduced legislation to overturn a 1979 court injunction that bars the government from revealing what individual physicians earn from Medicare. That information is stored in the Medicare-claims database, widely considered one of the best tools for finding fraud and abuse in the $500 billion federal health-insurance program for the elderly and disabled (Schoofs and Tamman, 4/8).