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Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) have introduced legislation
(S 756) that would allow Medicare payments to physicians to be made public. The
Medicare Data Access for Transparency and Accountability (DATA) Act would
overturn a 1979 court decision that prohibits Medicare from providing public
data about its billing information to physicians. The bill would call for HHS to
develop a searchable Medicare payment database that the public can access at no
cost, as Medicare payments to physicians would no longer have a Freedom of
Information Act exemption. According to the bill, the database would include the
amount paid to each provider or supplier, the items or services that were billed
to Medicare and the location of the provider or supplier.
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