Bill seeks team-based approach to caring for Medicare patients with chronic illness

Medpage Today: Medicare To Release Doc Pay Data This Spring
Medicare will begin releasing payment data for individual physicians on a "case-by-case basis" as soon as this spring, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced Tuesday. … The agency will evaluate requests for individual physician payment information starting in mid-March -- 60 days after the publication of a Federal Register notice explaining the policy, Blum said (1/14).

And insurers aren't waiting for proposed cuts to pressure lawmakers to preserve money for private Medicare plans --

Politico: Insurance Industry Ad Blitz To Preempt Medicare Cuts
This time around, the insurance industry isn't even waiting for the Obama administration to threaten cuts to private Medicare plans: It's launching a peremptory strike. America's Health Insurance Plans announced an all-out advertising campaign Tuesday. Maintaining the same "Seniors are Watching" theme of more general ads last fall, the new seven-figure campaign is the group's biggest mobilization to date for Medicare Advantage, a spokesman said. It comes in advance of an annual notice that sets the plans' payment rates for the upcoming year and is focused on that issue (Norman, 1/14).