Statement attributed to:
Robert M. Wah, MD
President, American Medical Association
"The American Medical Association (AMA) is committed to transparency that improves patient care and ensures patients and physicians have access to the data they need to make informed medical decisions. Transparency efforts and improving the use of health care data will be issues discussed during our annual meeting next week.
“The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has made a key improvement to its physician claims data release by separating Part B drugs from payment for physician services, thus eliminating the misleading perception that drug reimbursement was physician income.
“However, we remain concerned that the 2013 data still have significant shortcomings. Specifically, the data released today do not provide actionable information on the quality of care that patients and physicians can use to make any meaningful conclusions. The data also do not provide enough context to prevent the types of inaccuracies, misinterpretations and false assertions that occurred the last time the administration released Medicare Part B claims data.
“We continue to urge CMS to improve upon its data releases so that patients and physicians can actually use the information to better work together to improve quality, improve health outcomes and reduce costs.”
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About the American Medical Association
The American Medical Association is the physicians’ powerful ally in patient care. As the only medical association that convenes 190+ state and specialty medical societies and other critical stakeholders, the AMA represents physicians with a unified voice to all key players in health care. The AMA leverages its strength by removing the obstacles that interfere with patient care, leading the charge to prevent chronic disease and confront public health crises and, driving the future of medicine to tackle the biggest challenges in health care.
