Ambulance rides a costly chunk of Minnesota’s Medicare payments
By Christopher Snowbeck, Pioneer Press, St. Paul, Minn. | |
McClatchy-Tribune Information Services |
That's why the city in 2012 was one of the largest single recipients of
Out of more than 19,000 health care providers during 2012 who cared for
Whether they were providing ambulance rides or treating illnesses, the state's non-hospital providers collected less money on average in 2012 than their peers across the country, according to a
Health care experts say relatively low payments in
"We tend to not only have lower prices here, we tend to have lower utilization," said
The data release from the federal
The tally doesn't include Medicare Part A payments, which typically go to institutions involved in a patient's care such as hospitals and nursing homes. Released on
The
Instead, the payments represent total fees for all patient specimens tested at Mayo laboratories during the year. Cockerill's name appeared on all claims because he the supervising physician for the clinical laboratory tests, Anderson said. But that doesn't mean he got the money.
"Like all Mayo clinic physicians, Dr. Cockerill receives a salary," Anderson said in a statement. "He doesn't receive commissions on tests performed by Mayo laboratories."
In
In
Interpreting the numbers is difficult because they aren't adjusted for factors that could explain why
Some doctors might collect more from
The data could be useful to researchers, however, because it could point to cases where physicians or other service providers collect a lot of money because they aren't being efficient.
"It's going to give people an opportunity to dig," Chase said. Researchers could address questions such as: "Are you using the most effective (supplies) at the least cost available?"
Patients shouldn't use the new data to make judgments about the quality of care provided by doctors, said
Also, patients shouldn't look at the numbers and think the tallies show a doctor's profit from
In some cases, she said, the
"When it comes to overall payments to physicians,
While it's difficult to interpret the new data, the numbers seem to fit with previous studies showing relatively low use of services by
The new numbers don't include fees paid by
The new numbers show about
Among ambulance companies, the two biggest recipients were
The city of
"About 25 percent of the revenue that we collect is for
Other reports have suggested that
"The health care system is doing some good care coordination," McAlpin said. The coordination "reminds folks that there are other options than calling 911 for an ambulance."
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