Update on Physician Compare Sites-One MD Reader Found CMS to be More Accurate

The CMS system is not without errors and as mentioned, this is the first run at it but a physician reader did his comparison and shared his findings. He said in his area at least he didn’t find any “dead” or “retired” doctors on the list, so that’ a big step above the commercial folks like Healthgrades and Vitals.

I was beginning to wonder if everyone drank the same Kool Aid and it was good to get some information related outside of California to show more of a comparison, and at least we know CMS is not looking to make a profit at listing doctors. BD

“This professional chose to take part in Medicare's Physician Quality Reporting System and reported quality measure information satisfactorily for the year 2009. ”It is interesting that they chose to include this. Only Medicare has this information.

Also, some of my partners have their phone number and location included, some don’t. All have the year of medical school graduation, but a few also have the name of the school. Some have additional languages, some don’t. Some list the sex of the doctor, some don’t. I don’t see a pattern on what information they do, and don’t have on display. Checking on various colleagues, even Medicare does not have 100% up to date information. They list doctors as affiliated with groups that they left years ago.

Also, a local oncology group is affiliated with a statewide oncology mega-group. Apparently they have ALL their doctors statewide listed as practicing in EVERY city. So we have a about 45 oncologists listed , when we really only have 6. Ditto for the Emergency Room group. They have people that came once in the last 2 years listed.

Overall though, the Medicare site is more current than the Healthgrades or Vitals.com.”

CMS Physician Compare Site-Same as Websites For Profit? Same MD Convicted of Medicare Fraud and Dead Chimney Doctor on the List

Well if you read the Medical Quack often enough you know that I have poked around these site a bit as I want to check for accuracy after finding my former doctor who had been dead for 7 years still listed. I think everyone got the word via this blog and she does not appear any more but the other 2 that I have blogged about are on this list too. Below is Dr. Justice who admitted committing Medicare fraud and is to be sentenced in February, site still shows him accepting Medicare as full payment. I did look though and the state has not revoked his license yet! Is a sentencing date and admission of Medicare fraud (and this was his second time) not enough?

Dr. Justice’s sentencing is scheduled for Feb. 28. He previously served as the director of the cancer center at Orange Coast Memorial Medical Center in Fountain Valley, Calif. You might be able to still get an appointment if you pay cash I guess as I don’t think he can still bill Medicare.

I just hope CMS is not getting bilked on having to pay for this with the errors found here as it is all our tax dollars and furthermore hope they are not having to pay a company like HealthGrades for the use of the data or license.