Well, it could have been worse. Radiology ranked seventh of the top 10 medical specialties that received the most in Medicare payments in 2012, based on data released April 9 by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
The data cover 880,000 healthcare providers in all 50 states and Puerto Rico, who received a total of $77 billion in Medicare payments in 2012. The U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) created the dataset from its Physician/Supplier Part B Claims file.
Diagnostic radiology ranks seven out of 10 specialties with the highest total Medicare payments:
- Internal medicine -- $8.7 billion
- Ophthalmology -- $5.6 billion
- Cardiology -- $4.9 billion
- Ambulance service supply -- $4.9 billion
- Clinical laboratory -- $4.8 billion
- Family practice -- $4.4 billion
- Diagnostic radiology -- $3.4 billion
- Hematology/oncology -- $2.7 billion
- Ambulatory Surgery -- $2.4 billion
- Dermatology -- $2.2 billion
The information also revealed which diagnostic radiology providers earned the most Medicare dollars in 2012:
- Dr. Angelo Makris, Alexandria, VA -- $5.6 million
- Dr. Paul Svigals, Cherry Hill, NJ -- $5.1 million
- Dr. Stephen Liu, Modesto, CA -- $4.6 million
- Dr. Thanh Van, Houston -- $3.6 million
- Dr. Anthony Becker, Fresno, CA -- $3.5 million
- Dr. Robert Ivker, West Orange, NJ -- $3.5 million
- Dr. William Kelly, Palm Desert, CA -- $3 million
- Dr. John Rigney, Chappaqua, NY -- $3 million
- Dr. Patrick Browning, Sacramento, CA -- $2.9 million
- Dr. Richard Gray, Washington, DC -- $2.8 million
- Dr. Melvin Rosenblatt, Fairfield, CT -- $2.8 million
The data had been withheld from the public by a permanent injunction issued in 1979 that prohibited the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (as HHS was then known) from disclosing annual Medicare reimbursement payments to individual physicians.
However, last year, a Florida federal district court lifted the injunction in response to a petition brought by Dow Jones & Company and consulting firm Real Time Medical Data, which had sought physician Medicare data in 2011, only to be denied. On May 31, 2013, the injunction was lifted.
The release of the data is long overdue, said Jonathan Blum, principal deputy administrator at CMS, on a conference call.
"We've taken another huge step in making the Medicare program more transparent to outside researchers and the public," he said. "We've released the data for several key reasons: The public has a right to know the information since Medicare is funded by taxpayer dollars; Medicare spending varies tremendously by geography, and we hope researchers will try to understand this variation and whether it is associated with good value for beneficiaries; and we know there's waste and fraud in the system, and we want the public's help in identifying this."
