§1395w–6 Empowering Beneficiary Choices Through Continued Access to Information on Physicians’ Services

Summary

Each year starting in 2015, the Secretary must publish easy-to-understand public data about physicians and other covered professionals showing the items and services they give to Medicare patients. The data must be like the 2012 Medicare Provider Utilization and Payment file and shown in a similar way. At minimum it must show how many services each clinician provided (including common services or groups of services), the charges they submitted and payments made, and a public unique identifier such as a national provider identifier. The data must be searchable by specialty, by service characteristics (like volume or groupings), and by location. Starting in 2016, this information must be added to the Physician Compare website. "Physician", "eligible professional", and "Secretary" mean what section 1395w–5(i) says. "Physician Compare" means the CMS Physician Compare website (or a successor).