Arkansas Surgeon General Speaks On Healthcare Transparency

Chris Hickey with our content partner, KUAR-FM 89 News, has a conversation with Arkansas Surgeon General Joe Thompson regarding new data of Medicare billing fees.

This past week, there was a nationwide release of the doctors’ billing fees for Medicare, part of a move for greater transparency in the healthcare system.

Thompson said that while the transparency is good, the context of the data is important.

From KUAR:

In Arkansas, numbers show oncologists, ophthalmologists and ambulance services tend to receive the most in Medicare payments. Thompson said he welcomes the greater transparency in healthcare costs but warns that the numbers could be taken out of context.

“This is one important component but not the only component that should go into an analysis of how effective or high-quality a clinician is,” he said. “[Conversely,] it is important new data that lets us see into the healthcare system, identify areas where we have practiced variation that should not exist, or maybe gaps in care [where] we could get better quality care for patients by understanding where the healthcare system was failing.”

Thompson said in specialty areas of healthcare, like oncology, patients often receive much of their treatment, like IV-administered chemotherapy in the offices of their physicians, thus “it’s logical that those physicians are going to bill more than somebody who does most of their work in the hospital, like a surgeon.”

Thompson also said that he anticipated more information becoming available during the next ten years “than had been available over the last several decades.”

Read more at this link.